Avengers Plan B
by tpt player 5701
Summary: Tony looked up at Director Fury and asked, "You had a 'Plan B' for the Chitauri invasion?" "Mr. Stark," Fury responded with a twitch of his lip, "I'm a super spy. My 'secrets have secrets.' I always have a Plan B."
1. Prologue

AN: Longtime reader, but first-time writer. I don't own anything but the plot. Anything recognizable (and some less-recognizable) belongs to Marvel.

* * *

Three hours after the battle with the Chitauri, Tony Stark landed on the landing pad outside his mostly-demolished penthouse. He wearily walked into the tower to get a drink, call Pepper, take a shower, and begin assessing the damage to the tower. As he walked in he took in the Loki-sized indentations in the floor, the Hulk-foot-sized marks next to them, the charred holes dotting the far wall, and the glass shards and other debris scattered around the room. But he hardly noticed any of the damage. Instead, he walked directly over to the man sitting at the largely-intact bar.

"Rhodey! What the hell are you doing here?"

Lt. Colonel James Rhodes looked up from his beer and said, "Waiting for you, Stark. Decided to have a drink while I waited."

"You couldn't have shown up, like, four hours ago?" Tony demanded angrily. "I coulda used someone to watch my back. There was an alien invasion, in case you didn't catch the news. Instead, you're here three hours after the battle ended wearing _my_ suit, sitting on _my_ reinforced barstool at _my_ bar in _my_ wrecked penthouse in _my_ tower. Where were you?"

"Hang on, _your_ suit? I seem to recall you giving me this suit the week after the Expo when I stopped by to return your Mark-Two suit. You already had _my_ War Machine suit mostly done; you just needed a brain scan to sync the helmet to my brain pattern. You said something about how you'd been planning to give me a suit before you died, and had decided it would do us both more good while you were still alive."

"Yeah, I remember giving you that suit," Tony responded, "but I also remember saying it was yours as long as you had my back. Where have you been?"

Rhodey sighed and turned back to his drink. "Believe me, there's nowhere I'd rather have been than fighting off an army of crazy killer aliens led by an egomaniacal demi-god with daddy issues alongside my oldest friend. Unfortunately, a furious wannabe pirate ordered me to stay away every time I called him."

"'Wannabe pirate?'" Tony asked, realization starting to dawn. "This 'wannabe pirate' wouldn't happen to be the Director of a super-secret government agency, would he? And why would he order you not to join the battle?"

Rhodey took a swig of beer before turning back to Tony and saying, "Yes, and you'll have to ask him yourself."

* * *

The next morning, all those involved in the "Battle of New York," as it was coming to be called, gathered in a conference room on an undamaged level of the helicarrier, which was now floating off the coast of New Jersey awaiting a trip to dry dock. Nick Fury stood up and looked at the 20 other people in the room. The corner of his mouth twitched up in the closest approximation to a smile any of them had ever seen as he said, "Well done, everyone. It looked pretty hairy there for a while yesterday, but you managed to contain the threat, defeat the alien army, capture the war criminal, and come together as a team. This morning, we need to debrief you from the battle yesterday—."

"Before we do that," interrupted Stark, "I'd just like to know why there are so many people here when only six of us actually fought in the battle. And why did you deny Rhodey's requests to help us?"

Clearly annoyed by the interruption, Fury fixed his eye on Tony, who glared back angrily. After a long moment, Fury said, "While only a few of you actually fought in Manhattan, all of those in this room were involved in yesterday's incident in some capacity. That includes War Machine. He and his team were part of my 'Plan B.'"

"Sir," began Agent Hill, "should we really be telling them about Avengers Initiative—Plan B?"

With a shrug, Fury turned to his second-in-command and said, "Stark'd just hack our system again if we didn't tell him." He resumed staring at Tony and mockingly asked, "Did you really think you were the Earth's last line of defense between a murderous alien army and complete human enslavement?"

"Well," Tony responded, "I kinda thought that was the idea when the helicarrier started falling from the sky. You're welcome, by the way. The boat looks a lot better _in_ the air than falling _from_ it."

"Good, that was the whole point." Director Fury answered, ignoring the last comment. "But the fact of the matter is, I was not going to leave the fate of the world in the hands of a narcissistic billionaire who thinks tin cans are in style; a super soldier who still thinks slide rules are the latest technology; a green rage monster who's as likely to _break_ Manhattan as _save_ it; the alien/demi-god whose little brother caused this whole mess; and a couple master assassins, one of whom was just mind-raped into a glorified flying monkey by a 'glow-stick of death'-wielding alien, and the other of whom was _vicariously_ mind-raped, neither of whom have been at the top of their game for the last week. No, Stark, you were only the tip of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plans for countering yesterday's threat," Fury said. "No offense," he added with a glance at Agent Barton, who'd cringed at the mention of his part in Loki's schemes.

"None taken, sir," Barton responded. "I would just like to apologize for shooting you, sir."

"Apologize?" Fury asked. "I should be thanking you. In the first 5 minutes you after you were taken, you committed at least two separate acts of rebellion. When you could easily have killed me with a headshot, you instead shot me in my chest, the one place where you knew I was wearing armor. When I warned Agent Hill, you somehow managed to not kill her at a distance of 10 feet with a full clip of ammo and surprise on your side. Have you _ever_ done that before? And then, before your raid on the helicarrier you somehow managed to miss a shot at our #2 engine so you only managed to destroy one engine instead of two, making your attack on the bridge a necessity rather than a luxury. Our repaired sensor data from the attack showed a second detonation in the air below the ship," Fury added on seeing the confused looks around the table. He sarcastically continued, "That's fourteen missed shots in less than a week, a new record for you. Barton, I'm only sorry for all the horrible things Loki must have done to you for fighting him so much."

Clint shifted a little closer to Natasha, who whispered something quietly into his ear in Russian. He nodded and relaxed ever so slightly back into his chair.

Tony glanced from Director Fury to the two assassins and back, cleared his throat, and said, "As touching as this moment may be, you still haven't answered my question. You had a 'Plan B' for the Chitauri invasion?"

"Mr. Stark," Fury responded with a twitch of his lip, "I'm a super spy. My 'secrets have secrets.' I _always_ have a Plan B."


	2. Chapter One

AN: Still don't own anything but the plot. I haven't read the comics, so all information comes from the movies and Wikipedia. I altered some characters slightly into how I think they would fit into the Cinematic Universe. See if you can guess the 5 heroes not referenced by name in this chapter!

* * *

"Unauthorized departure," called out the alarm system, as Iron Man flew out of the hangar bay with a quinjet in hot pursuit.

"Sir, what should we do?" asked Agent Maria Hill.

"Get our communications back on line. Whatever it takes. We need eyes and ears down there," answered Director Fury. He turned to walk away and called over his shoulder, "And put Team B as plus-5 from the portal."

"Yes, sir," Hill responded to his back. While thumbing a button on her wrist, she activated her communicator and said, "Agents Morse, Danvers, and Lang, please report to the secondary hangar bay immediately."

* * *

As soon as she heard her communicator activate, Agent Barbara Morse turned away from the operating table she was standing by in the helicarrier's medical wing, excused herself, and walked out of the room. She took off her lab coat as she went, revealing a standard S.H.I.E.L.D.-issue "catsuit" with a plain silver buckle on the front. "Morse. I copy, and I'm en route to the hangar bay now. Though medical is even more short-staffed now than they were before I arrived, so you may want to find them some more help."

"Copy," responded Hill. "I still haven't been able to get through to the Doctor yet, but his assistant is on her way."

"The Doc? Good luck getting him out of his office!" Bobbi laughed.

"Just get down here as soon as you can," Hill said briskly, cutting off the transmission.

"Yes, ma'am," muttered Morse, as a similarly-dressed woman with a lightning-bolt-shaped belt clasp fell into step next to her. "Any idea what they called us for, Carol?"

"Not a clue," answered Carol Danvers. "I just hope we get to fight that egotistical demi-god-wannabe. I have some unfinished business with him."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I was laid up in medical for 3 months after the incident in New Mexico. Not that I'm complaining," she said, energy crackling in her fist. "Plus, the Hulk took out my favorite F-22 when he wrecked the main hangar. I figure I should get a chance to return the favor by turning Loki's glow-stick of death to ash."

"Do you actually _need_ a favorite plane?" Morse asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I say? I'm sentimental. That was the plane I was flying during the accident," Danvers replied with a shrug.

At that moment the two arrived in the hangar, where Agent Hill was waiting for them next to an undamaged quinjet with a man in a ridiculously out-of-style uniform. They barely spared a glance for the three strangely-dressed men exiting a quinjet that had just landed.

"Nice of you ladies to join us," Hill said sarcastically. "Get in. Your mission is to back up the Avengers A Team. You will meet your team leader when you arrive at Battery Park."

Agent Danvers quickly ran through the preflight procedures as Morse slipped into the copilot's seat next to her. As soon as the jet was in the air and out of the hangar, Bobbi turned to the man sitting in the back and said, "You know, Scott, I'm sure the Particles would work just as well with a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform as that garish old thing."

Scott Lang groaned. "You're probably right, but Professor Pym likes it too much to let me change it. He said the uniform comes with the codename. The only way he'd let me keep it was if I promised not to change the uniform. Looking back, I think I should've just gone back to prison!"

* * *

At that exact moment, Lt. Col. James Rhodes was 7500 feet above Cape May on his way to meet up with the helicarrier. He had been in a debrief meeting with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force when his pager went off. The highest-ranking military officer of the U.S. Air Force wasn't happy with the interruption, until both officers saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. distress code, at which the general had dismissed the lieutenant colonel with a wave. Rhodey had immediately left the office and raced to the pad which housed his War Machine armor while at the Pentagon. Less than a minute later, he was racing through the sky, shouting furiously at JARVIS for a status update.

"Sir, it appears that the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier was just attacked by an unknown force. Mr. Stark was there and used the Mark-VI Iron Man suit to restart a damaged rotor. However, the suit was very badly damaged in the process. He is currently returning to Stark Tower to switch for the Mark-VII. Shall I let him know you are on your way?" JARVIS asked.

"No, don't bother. We'll be at the helicarrier in 15 minutes, anyways," Rhodey answered.

Ten minutes later, JARVIS informed Rhodes that Agent Hill was attempting to contact him. "What's the situation, ma'am?" he asked.

"The helicarrier has been damaged, but it is still in the air. An alien is currently attempting to open a portal on Stark Tower to the edge of space to bring an alien invasion force to our planet. Iron Man and part of Avengers Team A just left the ship to stop him, and we need your help."

"I'll be at the tower in ten minutes," he responded, making a hard left turn as he did so.

"Negative, War Machine."

"Ma'am?" Rhodes asked.

"Your orders are to meet your team at Battery Park. Do not inform Iron Man of your presence or your orders. You will learn more when you arrive."

* * *

_It had been a week after the Stark Expo fiasco when the visitor showed up. Lt. Col. James Rhodes had just arrived home from returning Tony Stark's modified Mark-II suit. The general had not been happy with his decision, but Rhodes stubbornly referred him back to his report on Iron Man in which he'd outlined the benefits of Iron Man, and argued that those benefits would dissolve if Iron Man were no longer a unique entity operating simultaneously outside and within the military's chain of command. After Rhodes further threatened to take an early retirement, his superior officer had grudgingly agreed. And so Rhodes had flown back to Stark's recently-demolished Malibu home to return the suit._

_When he arrived, however, Tony met him at the "door" with a glass and a bear hug and showed him to the basement workshop._

"_I'm just here to return your suit," James said, starting to pull the pieces off._

"_Do your superiors know what you're doing? That's a certified piece of Stark technology there, and I'm sure they'd love to mass-produce it," Tony responded with a raised eyebrow._

"_Yeah, well we both saw how well _that_ worked out for all those involved last week. They know what I'm doing, they know why I'm doing it, they're not happy that I'm doing it, but I'm doing it."_

_Tony nodded and smiled as he said, "JARVIS, run a scan of the operating system on the Mark-II. I want to know how Vanko managed to worm his way in there. But first make sure there aren't any nasty surprises waiting for us."_

_A moment later the walls beeped. "Scan complete, sir. I have located the virus and purged it from the system. There was an additional program embedded in the operating system designed to hack me and install similar backdoors in all your suits, but I removed it and made the necessary modifications to my firewall. That program will not be a problem again."_

"_Thanks, JARVIS. Bring up the WM Mark-II design now."_

_Immediately a holographic representation of the War Machine armor appeared on the workbench, and Tony excitedly dragged Rhodey over to look at it. "What do you think?"_

_Rhodey admired for a moment before responding. "I think it looks amazing," he said. "You changed the composition of the armor and upgraded the weapons. I see you even replaced the 'Ex-Wife' with some Stark-tech."_

"_Yeah, I figured you'd appreciate having a _working_ bunker-buster instead of that piece of crap. Besides, I'm not letting anything from Hammer anywhere near any of our suits. The new suit is made from the same gold-titanium alloy as mine, since iron can ice up at high altitude. I left the color scheme the same, though, since you seemed to like it so much. That suit," Tony said fondly, gesturing at the pieces on the floor, "was actually how I found out about the icing problem. I'm also going to modify the helmet to conform to your brain patterns. Otherwise it might be too big for your head. It should be done machining in about five minutes."_

"_Yeah, your head is more than big enough for the two of us! Tony," James asked suddenly, "why are you doing this? You've been doing the lone gunslinger thing for over 6 months, and now you suddenly want a sidekick?"_

"_Actually, I gave this a lot of thought before the Expo. As soon as I found out about the palladium poisoning, I decided I needed a couple successors, one for Stark Industries and one so there'd still be an Iron Man. Pepper was the obvious choice for Stark, but I didn't want to put her in any more danger by sticking her in a weaponized suit of armor. That and she doesn't have military training. So I decided you should be the next Iron Man. I was planning to let you know and make you a new Iron Man suit closer to the end, but life intervened," Tony answered, pointing to the ARC reactor in his chest. "After what happened at the Expo, I realized that you would do both of us more good as War Machine than as Iron Man 2.0. If you could be my successor, why couldn't you just as easily keep me from _needing_ a successor? So, this suit is yours on two conditions. First, don't let Justin Hammer touch my baby ever again."_

"_Agreed. And the second?"_

"_The second is more for Pepper's sake than mine. Watch my back."_

"_I've always watched your sorry ass; what makes you think I'm about to stop now?"_

_Tony grinned, took Rhodey's hand, and pulled his best friend into a hug._

_Once the suit was complete, Tony made his friend put it on so they could sync it to Rhodey's particular brain patterns. Once that was complete, Rhodey took a test flight, thanked Tony, and returned home, where he found S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill sitting at his dining room table._

"_Welcome home, 'War Machine,'" she said._

"_Can I help you?" Rhodey asked suspiciously, raising his visor and lowering the mini-gun._

"_I'm here on behalf of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' for short. We'd like for you to join a little project we're putting together," Hill answered calmly, clearly unfazed by the laser point on her chest._

"_I already have a job, but I guess you knew that," he said, indicating the personnel file on the table in front of the agent._

"_Your superiors already know about the offer. We actually… expedited… their approval of your plan not to mass-produce Stark's armor. They also gave us approval to borrow you on an as-needed basis for the Avengers Initiative in exchange for maintaining operational command over War Machine while you are not involved in S.H.I.E.L.D. operations," she replied, rising from the chair. "As you know, Mr. Stark is not exactly a team player, but _you've_ been trained as one for the last 15 years. According to your service record you have exemplary leadership skills. We're asking Tony Stark to stay on as a consultant with the Initiative, but we'd like you to join the team as its leader."_

_Lt. Col. Rhodes deactivated the mini-gun, took the offered hand in his gauntleted one, and said, "I'm at your service, ma'am."_

* * *

Of course, 3 months ago "team leader" had turned into "back-up-team leader" when the legendary Captain Rogers was defrosted, Rhodey remembered. Hill had contacted him as soon as the HYDRA plane was discovered and informed him that the Avengers Initiative had taken a bit of a turn. Instead of a single Avengers team, Director Fury had decided to create two, one of which would be a secret backup for the other team. A different S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was responsible for the primary team, led by Captain America, while Agent Hill would handle Team B, led by Lt. Col. War Machine. Rhodey had also been given direct orders from Director Fury not to tell Tony anything about his involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D.

_And now they want me to keep him in the dark, even as he's flying off in a busted-up suit to battle an alien army intent on enslaving the human race. If he ever needed someone watching his back, it would be _now, Rhodey thought angrily as he yelled for JARVIS to pump more power into the thrusters.


	3. Chapter Two

AN: Still don't own it.

* * *

Daniel Rand normally appreciated the fine view of the city through the window next to his desk. On a good day he could see all the towers surrounding their small office lit up by the sun. However, today his view of Stark Tower was decidedly less pleasant. When he casually glanced out at the gleaming skyscraper in the distance, Rand's eye was immediately drawn upward, as usual, along the sleek silver lines. But instead of coming to rest on the owner's name in 30-foot letters just below the helipad, his eyes continued up to the beam of light pulsing into the sky from the tower's roof.

"Hey, Luke, come check this out," he called to his partner, taking his feet off the desk. A large muscular black man with a shaved head rose from the other desk in the small office and came to stand in front of the window.

"What?" he asked.

"What's that above Stark Tower?" Rand asked.

"Don't know," Luke Cage responded with somewhat forced calmness. "Maybe Stark's testing some new energy source."

"Do his energy sources usually open black holes in the middle of the sky?"

"No, but you never know with that gu—oh, crap!" Cage shouted as a swarm of aliens on speeders dropped seemingly from nowhere. "Tony Stark might be an egg-headed egomaniac, but no way in hell he'd want an alien army that close to his own tower!"

"Luke, what are we gonna do? We can't just sit here and do nothing," Daniel said, standing up.

Cage immediately pulled out his cell phone, but threw it across the room against the wall where it shattered. "No signal," he spat. "Those aliens must be messing with our cell towers."

"Landline's dead, too," Rand called, dropping the receiver.

"Guess our only option is S.H.I.E.L.D. If anyone knows what the hell is going on, it's gotta be them." Luke Cage put his thumb on the scanner on the safe hidden under the false bottom of a desk drawer. The latch immediately opened, revealing a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. standard-issue earwigs. He tossed a communicator to Rand, slipped the other in his own ear, and tapped the transmit button.

"Luke Cage, codename Power Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. authorization number MH-1972 calling any S.H.I.E.L.D. unit. Do you copy?"

The communicator came to life. "Authorization code confirmed. Please hold one moment." After a pause, another voice came through the speaker. "Cage, this is Agent Sitwell on S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Alpha. We have a situation here, so this had better be important," the voice on the other end said urgently.

Luke shouted, "Your 'situation' wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the black hole opening over Stark Tower, would it? There's an alien army pouring out of nowhere, and I think I just saw Iron Man fly up there against them. There are just too many of them for him to fight them off himself. What the hell's going on?"

Sitwell responded, "You can see the battle from your location? One moment while I transfer you to Agent Hill."

Hill answered almost at once, "Hill here. What's happening?"

Daniel Rand said, "A portal of some sort just opened over Stark Tower in Manhattan. An alien army is coming out on some kind of hover speeders, and for once I think this might actually be more than Iron Man can handle on his own."

At that moment a S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet roared across their view with its mini-gun pumping out lead. Rand shouted as much into his communicator as the quinjet stopped to hover above Stark Tower and was promptly hit by a bolt of blue energy.

"Your jet just got shot down by some kind of energy weapon, but people look to be emerging from it. We should go down there to help them," Cage said, running for the door.

"Negative," Hill answered immediately. "If you want to help, you can do more good by joining up with our second team, which is currently en route. Rendezvous with them at Battery Park as soon as possible. And Cage," Hill added, "I don't know if we'll be able to pay you your standard fee on this one; our funds are going to be stretched pretty thin after today's… events."

"Agent Hill, I think we can give you a discount if it means saving our city," Luke responded, leaping down the stairs, Daniel hot on his heels.

* * *

After talking with the Heroes for Hire, Hill immediately radioed the members of Team B who were on their way to the rendezvous point. "Rhodes, Agents, listen up. I just spoke to a couple S.H.I.E.L.D. contractors with an office near Stark Tower. The portal is currently open. Team A is on site and engaging the enemy. According to our source, Stark was flying into battle, and fighting well." Rhodey let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"However," Maria continued, "Team A's quinjet was shot down by what may have been Loki's magic." The three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gasped at that revelation. "They survived the crash, and we just received word that Thor and the Hulk have caught up with Team A. As such, your orders remain the same.

"You are to proceed to the rendezvous point at Battery Park. Take all precautions to avoid detection by enemy forces. You may only engage the enemy if you are at risk of discovery. Once you reach Battery Park, you will wait for two additional team members to arrive. I asked those two… 'super mercenaries' to join your team for this battle. You will only enter the battle on direct orders from myself or Director Fury, which will only occur if one of the Team A Avengers gets incapacitated or the Chitauri army begins to gain momentum against them. Barring those circumstances, you are forbidden to make your presence known. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," War Machine responded with a growl. "But why do we have to sit on the sidelines and wait for our friends and fellow agents to get injured or killed?"

"Agent Hill," Bobbi Morse cut in, "I've known Hawkeye and Black Widow for the entire six years I've been an agent. I know what they are capable of, especially together. It's like they have some kind of psychic connection: In Budapest, Calcutta, Johannesburg… they operated as a single unit and took on entire _human_ armies singlehandedly. But they aren't super soldiers or demi-gods. When I arrived in Budapest with the extraction team, Romanoff was bleeding out in Barton's arms, and he had more bones broken than unbroken! You don't know that even all six of them _together_ can defeat an entire alien army without friendly casualties. Ma'am, wouldn't our team do more good in the battle than waiting here?"

"War Machine, Mockingbird," Fury's voice suddenly cut in, "there is more at stake here than you are aware. This is not about a single alien invasion; this is about the security of our planet. I want to show Loki, or whoever may be pulling Loki's strings, what just six of 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' can accomplish in Earth's defense. I want him to know that we are capable of defending ourselves, but I don't want him to know just how much _more_ capable we are. If Team A cannot make the statement I want to make, I have you pumped and ready to go five minutes from the battlefield, but I'm not playing any more of my cards than I need to. Team A's communications are on channel 19. You can listen in for yourselves, but do not interfere. Your comm. channel is 20. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, sir," Rhodey answered bitterly.

* * *

Cage quickly assessed the situation when they arrived on the ground level of their office building. Civilians were running everywhere looking for cover, while alien speeders rocketed over head, raining fire on everything in their path. Given their orders not to interfere with the team at the tower, Cage didn't spare a second for that problem. Instead, he jumped on his mercifully undamaged motorcycle with Rand behind him and roared off.

It took all of Cage's concentration to keep the bike upright as he wove between destroyed cars and broken-off pieces of buildings, avoiding screaming pedestrians at every turn. As a result, he almost didn't hear when Daniel shouted in his ear to stop five minutes into their trip.

"What?" Luke called out.

"I said, 'A squad of aliens just entered that school!' We gotta stop!"

"No way! The job is to hook up with the group at Battery Park, not save a school!"

"Damn it, Luke, there are kids in there!" Daniel screamed, jumping off the motorcycle and sprinting toward the school.

With a curse, Luke swerved and punched the brakes. Before the bike was fully stopped, he leapt off to follow his partner into the building.

As soon as he passed through the doorway, he looked into the nearest classroom, where he saw that a trio of aliens had cornered a teacher, and her 20 students behind her, against the wall. The aliens had their weapons lowered and were just about to kill the teacher to get to the children. With a roar, Cage picked up the teacher's desk and threw it across the room, knocking the surprised aliens out cold. Without a moment's hesitation, Cage grabbed the nearest alien spear, walked around the shattered remains of the desk, and stabbed each of the unconscious aliens in the heart. The sound of a half-dozen bodies sailing down the hallway and crashing into the far wall told Cage that his partner had similarly dispatched a group of the alien warriors.

Luke Cage stepped out of the classroom and looked down the hall at the wrecked bodies of six aliens, one of whom had a smoldering hole in his chest. He turned the other way and saw Rand fighting with another alien, who'd wised up and was dodging away from Daniel's glowing fist. Cage immediately barreled down the hallway toward the pair. As he reached them he delivered a strong right hook to the back of the unsuspecting alien's head while shouting, "Fist, duck!"

Iron Fist dropped to the floor as the alien sailed above him, crashed through the wall, and came to rest in the empty classroom beyond it.

"Thanks," Rand said, brushing the dust off his jacket and standing up. He took a quick look around the rest of the building. "That was the last alien in the school."

"Let's get going, then," Cage replied, walking out the school's front door.

* * *

Agent Scott Lang looked out the cockpit toward the battle raging in Midtown. He punched the seat next to him furiously as a streak of lightning shot from the Chrysler Building up into the portal. "Why don't we get to fight?"

"And what would _you_ do, Ant-Man," asked Carol Danvers, arching her eyebrow, "steal their food?"

Lang snorted. "Nah, I just do that in your kitchen."

"Tell me," Danvers said, "when's the last time you actually got _in_ a serious fight?"

"Hey, it's not my fault they keep using me exclusively for espionage. We can't all be super spy assassins and fight off entire armies like Barton and Romanoff," he answered.

Bobbi interrupted their banter at that moment. "Looks like you'll get that chance to fight after all, Scott. There's an alien speeder at our 1 o'clock low."

"I've got it," said Danvers, activating the jet's mini-gun.

At that moment, however, the speeder was engulfed by a swarm of yellow jackets, rendering it impossible for the aliens to see the quinjet bearing down on them. As Danvers fired a salvo to finish off the speeder, she hazarded a glance at their passenger, shook her head, and said, "You know, I think I might have to eat my words after all. That was actually quite impressive!"

Ant-Man broke his concentration, causing the insects to disperse, and gave Ms. Marvel a grin. "That was nothing. You should've seen the time I sent every cicada in the Midwest after Justin Hammer! I don't think that suit will ever be clean!"

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the helicarrier, Director Fury escorted his three mysterious guests into an undamaged conference room near his office. He gestured for them to be seated, saying, "Thank you for coming, Your Highnesses. We have much to discuss."


	4. Chapter Three

AN: I'm grateful for all the views, favorites, follows, and reviews for this story. Let me know what you think of my portrayal of the various Marvel characters. If you think someone is out of character, review and let me know. I'll either fix it or explain why I wrote the character that way. One I'd like to note right away is that I realize Mockingbird and Hawkeye are married in the comics, but I think the changes in Hawkeye and Black Widow's characters for the movie (particularly the way Romanoff comes to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the way they operate as partners) make it clear that she hasn't betrayed him and there is still something going on between them. As such, Mockingbird in here is their friend, nothing more.

Virtually everything but the plot belongs to Marvel.

* * *

Director Fury looked around the room at the three regal figures seated at the conference table.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I don't need to remind you what is at stake here. Loki intends to use these Chitauri to take over this planet, and then he will almost certainly enslave _all_ of our races. Perhaps separately you can fight the Chitauri off for a while, but with that portal open I'm sure he has nearly unlimited reinforcements. In time, each of you will fall against their superior numbers and be turned into Loki's personal blue-eyed errand-boys. Right now, however, we have a chance to stop the Chitauri in their tracks before they can open a beachhead around the portal. I have a team already in place, but there's no guarantee that they will be able to close the portal. With something like this, 'no guarantee' is simply not good enough. What I need from you now is an assurance that you will join us in fighting off this alien menace today, right here and now." He turned to one of the men at the table. "What do you say, King T'Challa?"

The Black Panther of the Wakandan people leaned forward in his chair. He took a moment to look appraisingly at the other men at the table, weighing the consequences of his words before responding. "I am well aware of the danger which this threat poses to my country."

"Unfortunately," Fury said, "you don't know the full extent of the danger to your country. When we analyzed Loki's scepter in our lab, we detected traces of vibranium in the handle. Iron Man's suit has also transmitted us scans of the enemy armor and weapons, which also contain traces of vibranium. It appears that the vibranium is part of an alloy that serves as a catalyst for their energy beams. As such, I'm sure the only terrestrial source of vibranium would be a prime military target for them. Both Dr. Selvig and Agent Barton were aware of your country's extensive vibranium deposit. Dr. Selvig did some testing with vibranium a few months ago, and you remember that Barton helped you fend off Mr. Klaw several years back in exchange for specially-designed vibranium arrowheads for his sonic arrows. It's highly likely that Loki may have learned of your country's existence and its vibranium from them."

"As soon as you told me of Hawkeye's capture, I feared my country's secret would fall into hostile hands. Regardless, my mind was made up almost as soon as you contacted me last week." Black Panther paused for a moment before continuing. "We shall stand with you on this, as we have in the past. Two-thirds of my army is on its way as we speak."

"Only two-thirds?" asked one of the other men at the table.

"My country has its own enemies to defend against. Do you think Ulysses Klaw will stop trying to break through our western border just because the world may be ending?" the Black Panther shot back sarcastically.

Nick Fury cut in at that moment. "How long until your transports arrive?"

"They've been holding station, half over the Atlantic and half over the Pacific, for the last 3 days," T'Challa answered. "You did not say where they would be needed, so I divided my army and placed them within easy response time of anywhere on the globe. The division over the Atlantic will arrive in approximately 45 minutes, with the one over the Pacific about two hours behind. My military has the fastest planes on the planet. Of course, it will be longer if your air force gives us trouble," he added questioningly.

"Don't worry. Our Air Force will not stop you; I have people taking care of that as we speak. Thank you, Chief T'Challa. What about you, Prince Namor?" Director Fury asked, turning to the second man at the table. "Will your people aid us?"

"I'm not so sure that would be in our best interests," Namor the Sub-Mariner said, fixing Director Fury with a glare. "Very few people even within your organization know that the myths about Atlantis have any basis in fact. I don't think it likely that the aliens would attack us, even after they succeed in conquering the surface. After all, we have natural advantages underwater which I don't know if the Chitauri also possess—"

"They do," interrupted the final man at the table, voice hinting at extreme power despite being barely above a whisper. "Their home planet also has vast oceans. Not all Chitauri are adapted to live underwater, but their military has several adapted divisions exclusively for aquatic warfare."

"How do you know so much about an alien race we've never met before?" Namor asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Regardless, that state of affairs would certainly change if we were to engage in open warfare against them today. But _you_, on the other hand," Namor pointed an accusing finger at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, "seem like a far greater threat than these aliens. Tell me, Director, why did two of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s submarines take station less than 20 miles from the entrance to Atlantis last week?"

Fury put his hands up in a gesture of peace and said, "Prince Namor, I assure you that those subs are not there to threaten your people. They have orders to avoid contact with Atlanteans and only act to defend themselves and your city if it is threatened by an enemy force. As a matter of fact, I ordered them there myself as soon as Loki arrived on the planet, just in case our compromised agents revealed your nation's existence. And along those lines, even if he hasn't yet, it is very likely that Loki will discover your existence sooner or later once they've defeated S.H.I.E.L.D., so you will likely have to face this threat sooner or later. As Black Bolt said, the Chitauri are capable of fighting underwater."

Namor put his hand down, forced himself to calm down, and said, "Your concern that the enemy will learn of us is valid, and I understand your impulse to protect us as a sometime ally, particularly if, as your other distinguished guest says, the enemy has the ability to attack us in our element. However, the mistrust between our races makes your actions seem much more threatening than you perhaps intended. Remember, we are not defenseless by any means, which is, I think, why you asked me to join you today."

"I apologize for neglecting to inform you of our division's defensive ship movements, Prince. If those subs make you uncomfortable, I can order one or both of them to leave the area. If you are interested, however, I will leave one to aid in protecting your city until this trouble with Loki is resolved, at which point it will immediately withdraw," Fury negotiated.

Namor responded, "That would be acceptable, provided that you move one vessel out of the area immediately and station the remaining sub at least 100 miles from Atlantis. If you do that and give me assurance that you will remove it once Loki's gone, and that you will inform us before your ships enter our territory again, I will gladly aid you in this battle."

"That is perfectly acceptable to me. Thank you," Director Fury said. "When will your army be in position?"

"Four divisions are already awaiting my orders in Long Island Sound, with another eight on their way from our base off your East Coast. They will arrive in the Lower Bay in four hours," the Sub-Mariner answered. To Fury's slightly confused look, he shrugged and explained, "You're not the only one keeping tabs on your occasional allies."

"As disconcerting as I find your army's presence so close to our shores to be, I must admire your foresight, especially now. That is good news, though the battle may be over before your reinforcements arrive," Fury said. "King Blackagar, you've heard these men's commitments to the defense of this planet. Will you join us?"

The final man in the room looked around before shaking his head. In a whisper he said, "To be completely honest, I don't know why I'm even here. This alien threat is against the Earth, not its Moon. Why should I drag my people into a terrestrial war when your planet barely trusts my race as it is?"

Director Fury leaned forward in his chair and said, "Sir, you know very well why I asked the three of you to meet me here. Let's face it: The regular United States Army has a snowflake's chance in hell against those Chitauri; you can see the news reports for yourselves. I can't ask our traditional allies for aid because none of them have the weapons or technology to counter this threat, and the only ally close enough to send a force to New York City today is Canada.

"On the other hand, even though Wakanda is not officially a U.S. ally, the Black Panthers have assisted S.H.I.E.L.D. and its predecessor the Scientific Strategic Reserve going back all the way to World War II's North African campaign. Despite some misunderstandings, Chief T'Challa's grandfather fought alongside Captain Rogers in that fight. Their military technology is equal to that of S.H.I.E.L.D., or in some cases much better.

"Despite the historic distrust between our peoples, Atlantis has before shown a willingness to assist us against mutual enemies, as in World War II at Normandy and Iwo Jima. A squad of Lemurian soldiers even helped train our Navy SEALs during the Vietnam War. The _homo mermanus_ have fighting capabilities which put _homo sapiens_ to shame.

"I know there are a lot of trust issues between you Inhumans and us humans. However, no one, not even our resident alien Thor, has had many—if any—dealings with the Chitauri before. No one, that is, except you. You know them much better than anyone else here, as you showed just five minutes ago, and that knowledge could be the key to defeating them and saving both of our planets. If you help us now, it will certainly go a long way toward patching up relations between our species. If you don't, however, do you really think they'll take the Earth and ignore its moon?"

The King of the Inhumans sighed, thought for a moment, and acquiesced to the Director's request. He appeared deep in thought for a minute before he opened his eyes and softly said, "Very well. I see that my people's knowledge and assistance at this moment could be crucial to this sector's continued safety. Yes, we will help you. My army will arrive over New York City in an hour's time. Who knows, perhaps this incident will help improve your species' perceptions of both the Atlanteans _and_ the Inhumans."

Fury stood up and shook each man's hand firmly. "Thank you, gentlemen. I'm still hoping my team will be able to successfully resolve this situation without our assistance, but if the tide of the battle turns against them, we will send in your three armies and hopefully make short work of this battle. The element of surprise should be enough to give us the momentum."

Director Fury summoned a holographic map of New York City. "Now, we need to look to the distribution of our forces should that time come. My Plan C order of attack is as follows: Namor, you will send two divisions of your army to either side of Manhattan Island. That way they will be in position to contain the Chitauri from the east and west. Black Panther, I want your army cutting off any southern escape, say around 34th Street. Black Bolt, let's place your Inhumans along 57th Street. My people will be within that perimeter, and my jets will cover us from the air. Absolutely nothing Chitauri gets past that perimeter. We'll tighten the perimeter as we go to avoid allowing them to escape from the fight. As troops arrive, we will stage them from Governor's Island to prepare for the counterstrike. We will position them in one hour once the Inhuman army arrives. Any troops arriving after that time will marshal at Governor's Island as reinforcements depending on how the battle goes."

Namor asked, "And what if your team cannot hold them for an hour until we are in place?"

"Prince, if they couldn't keep an alien army occupied for an hour, they wouldn't be my team. Could you gentlemen please excuse me for a few minutes? I have something else to attend to with our battle plan."

* * *

Agent Carol Danvers, codename Ms. Marvel, set down Team B's quinjet in a small copse of trees in the middle of Battery Park and engaged the cloaking device. War Machine and the Heroes for Hire were nowhere to be seen.

"We should scout the area and make sure no one sees us, especially not the Chitauri," Morse said as soon as the jet was on the ground.

"Mockingbird, you stay here and watch the jet," Danvers ordered. "Monitor Team A's communications and let us know of any changes. Keep the engines running just in case Fury gives us a call. Ant-Man, think you can find yourself a ride?"

Before she had finished speaking, Lang had already activated the Pym Particles on his belt and begun to shrink. A dragonfly flew through the open loading ramp, and the now-tiny Ant-Man leapt on its back.

"Good," Ms. Marvel said approvingly, jogging out of the jet, leaping, and taking flight. "You and I will check the Park out, and then take turns on watch. Meet back here in 15 minutes."

* * *

As soon as he stepped out of the conference room, Director Fury set off toward his office. After thinking for a moment, he activated his communicator and said, "Agent Hill, send Spector to my office."


	5. Chapter Four

AN: Still don't own any of it. Review and let me know what you think!

* * *

The communicator in James Rhodes' suit came to life. "War Machine, I need you to expedite transit to New York City for a number of planes."

"Sir?" asked Rhodes.

"Congratulations, airman," Fury said with a wry chuckle. "I just promoted you to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unofficial Air Force liaison. Now you get to explain the presence of three dozen stealth jets not belonging to an official U.S. ally in U.S. airspace during a global crisis to the Secretary of the Air Force. Good luck. The information is being downloaded to your suit as we speak. And by the way, the promotion doesn't come with a pay raise." The line clicked off.

"Yes, sir," Rhodey muttered to himself. "JARVIS, call the SECAF."

The phone rang once before it was answered. "This is my private line. If you're calling this number while I'm in a meeting with the Secretary of Defense during a national emergency, there had better be a damn good reason," the Secretary said tersely.

"Sir, Lt. Col. James Rhodes, codename War Machine, calling on behalf of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury just made me his Air Force liaison."

"Are you looking for congratulations? Son, cut straight to the point. I'm pretty busy dealing with the situation in New York as we speak," the Secretary responded tiredly.

"Sir, that's why I'm calling, sir. S.H.I.E.L.D. is in the process of handling that threat right now. The team of superheroes currently on the ground is there on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., and they are only the first part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s battle plan to deal with the aliens, called Chitauri; in fact, I just had to leave a briefing with the CSAF to meet up with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s second team in New York. Director Fury told me to inform you that there are currently 36 supersonic stealth jets en route to New York City. They are a vital part of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s response plan to the invasion. They need free airspace to travel at speed and arrive as quickly as possible," Rhodes said quickly.

"Give me the details," the Secretary said immediately.

"Director Fury did not inform me of their countries of origin or what they are transporting. I'm sending you the tail numbers and IFF transponder codes as we speak. There are two groups of 18 planes each. One group is coming from the east and will arrive in 40 minutes; the other is coming from over the Pacific and will enter U.S. airspace in just under one hour to arrive in New York an hour after that. Each group consists of 12 transport jets and six escort fighters," Rhodes stated briskly.

"One hour to fly across the country? I wish _our_ military transports could do that! If you are cleared to, I would very much like to know where these planes are from at some point. I assume this information is classified?" the Secretary asked.

"That is my understanding, sir," Rhodes responded evenly.

"Very well, I will inform our domestic base commanders of the situation, order them to keep the information as compartmentalized as possible, and ensure that the planes are not delayed. I'd offer an escort, but they might get left behind!" the Secretary responded wryly, disconnecting immediately.

Rhodey sighed, instructing JARVIS to change the radio channel so he could listen in on Team A's communications from the battle. _Not the same as being there_, he thought, _but I guess it's the best I'm going to get for now._

"_Stark, you've got some strays on your tail,"_ Rhodey heard Hawkeye say.

"_Yeah? Already knew that, Robin Hood,"_ Iron Man answered briskly.

"_Well they can't turn worth a damn. Find a tight corner,"_ Hawkeye advised with mirth in his voice.

The radio was silent for a few minutes except for a few grunts and yells from Tony along with an occasional explosion, until Rhodey heard what sounded like a hundred explosions in the background as alien speeders caromed into the side of a building. _Now _that_'s the Tony Stark I know and love_, Rhodey wanted to shout into the communicator. He held his tongue, though, and thought back to the first time he and Tony had fought together as Iron Man and War Machine, at the Expo. His suit had been hacked and taken over by Ivan Vanko, a crazy Russian—_is there any other kind in this business?_ he asked himself with a humorless smile—who had a grudge against Tony and his family. Rhodes had only been able to watch helplessly while his first War Machine suit (with him still in it) attempted to kill his best friend.

After a few minutes of being chased around by a swarm of "Hammeroids," as Tony had started referring to them, Tony had decided to "thin out the herd" by taking a nearly impossible route through the model of the globe in the middle of the Stark Expo. Because their guidance systems were not equipped to follow that path, all of the drones had crashed on the turns, leaving War Machine and Iron Man as the only survivors. _If it hadn't been for Tony and his skill with the suit, that fight could have ended a lot differently_, Rhodey told himself. _Maybe he'll be okay today without me, or at least until Fury gets his head out of his ass and decides to use his overwhelming force!_

He put as much power into the thrusters as he could, and arrived at Battery Park just in time to watch Ms. Marvel destroy a Chitauri speeder with an energy pulse from her fist. Afterward, she and Ant-Man returned from their initial patrol and landed on the quinjet's ramp. Rhodes raised the visor on his helmet and greeted his team saying, "Lt. Col. James Rhodes, codename War Machine. What's the situation, people?"

Agent Danvers snapped to attention and answered, "Agent Carol Danvers, codename Ms. Marvel. We've been here for 15 minutes now, and thus far our presence hasn't been reported, either by civilians or by enemy troops. Agent Scott Lang—Ant-Man—and I just checked out the Park. I saw a single Chitauri scout on my circuit, but I dispatched it before it had a chance to report back to its army."

Morse turned around from her place in the copilot's seat. "Agent Bobbi Morse, codename Mockingbird. Everything's been quiet on the jet," she said. "I've been monitoring Team A's communications during the battle. They've been fighting against some ridiculous odds, but they are all still in one piece and holding their own. They've managed to take down a couple of those giant space leviathans."

"_Are you sure about this?"_ Captain America's voice cut in through the radio at that moment. The four members of Avengers Team B stopped talking to listen.

"_Yeah, pretty sure. It's gonna be fun,"_ Black Widow's voice answered.

"What is she planning to do?" Agent Lang asked the suddenly silent quinjet.

The next thing they heard from the radio was the sound of Romanoff springing off Captain America's shield into the air, and a pained grunt followed by the sound of a speeder's engines and wind whistling past the communicator's microphone. The three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gasped as they realized what she must have just done.

"Is she crazy?" Bobbi asked incredulously. "Why would she think catching a ride on an alien speeder is a good plan?"

"Ugh, this is like listening to a football game on the radio!" exclaimed Scott in frustration. "Why the hell can't we _be_ there?"

* * *

After leaving the school, Luke Cage and Danny Rand at first made fairly good time toward Battery Park to rendezvous with Avengers Team B. This area of the city was a few miles from the portal, beyond the police perimeter, and very few of the Chitauri had made it this far. As such, the roads had not sustained very much damage. There were still Chitauri patrols flying around, however, leaving burned-out cars and damaged buildings in their wake.

Instead of threading between wrecked cars and building debris, the Heroes for Hire found themselves caught in a flood of civilians a few blocks from the school attempting to escape the city. By laying on the horn, Cage managed to clear a tiny path for their motorcycle to squeeze through. Once they made their way through the pedestrians, they were able to move faster.

"Where are they all going?" Danny asked.

"Where else? They're trying to get away from the psycho alien army. Too bad there are so few ways off the island," Luke answered.

A couple minutes later, as they were passing the Williamsburg Bridge, they realized how much of a problem the refugee situation was causing. A pair of Chitauri speeders flew overhead toward the bridge, raining energy beams on the cars below.

"Why are they shooting on the bridge?" Iron Fist shouted.

"Isn't it obvious? All the unarmed civilians on the bridge are a soft target since they can't fight back. They're trying to take the bridge down and keep the refugees here. Plus, the Army's got to be on its way. But without the bridges they won't be able to get here as quickly; they'll have to set up temporary bridges first," Power Man shouted back.

"We need to help them!" Iron Fist shouted.

On their second pass over the bridge, the two speeders opened a gaping hole in the roadway near the Manhattan side of the bridge. They could only watch in horror as a sedan fell through the hole and splashed into the water below and the terrified driver bailed out through an open window as soon as the car hit the water. A fully-loaded commercial bus' front tires slid over the edge into the hole, threatening to consign the bus to a watery grave.

Almost without thinking, Cage leapt the median and gunned the engine down the pedestrian sidewalk toward the bus. By the time they maneuvered the bike through the mass of people, the bus was already halfway off the bridge, leaning precariously over the edge. Luke jumped off the motorcycle and raced toward the bus, grabbing wildly for the back bumper as the bus started to tip forward and the rear axle rose above his head.

* * *

Iron Fist glanced quickly around the bridge and surveyed the damage. He noticed that one of the alien speeders had come to rest on the other side of the bridge. The two aliens riding it had dismounted and were preparing to attack a young family. The father was standing in front of his family, trying to shield his wife and son from the aliens with his own body.

Danny had a brief, horrible flashback to one of his most unpleasant early memories: another young boy being forced to watch his parents murdered in front of him in a desperate attempt to save their son's life. Swallowing back the bile that rose to his throat, the Iron Fist silently promised to save that young boy from a similar fate. He raced across the bridge with a shout, concentrating his chi in his right fist as he went. Hearing the cry, the other speeder flew toward him, dropping seemingly out of nowhere to hover three feet from the ground, and started shooting lasers at him.

As energy beams peppered the ground at his feet, Iron Fist leapt to his right, catching hold of a semi truck's exhaust pipe as he went, and pushed himself off feet first toward the speeder. His legs nearly buckled from the force as his feet connected with the surprised pilot's chest, forcing him backward into the other alien on the speeder. Both aliens tumbled off and fell to the ground, with Iron Fist landing in a crouch over them. The pilotless speeder immediately dropped the three feet to the ground and detonated when it smashed into an abandoned car.

He quickly snapped both aliens' necks while they were still stunned and took off toward the other two aliens, shouting as he went. The lead alien lifted his spear to plunge it into the father's heart, while its companion turned and shot a beam of blue light directly at Danny. He spun to his left, but felt a burning pain in his right shoulder as the weapon made contact. Barely slowing down, he shifted his concentrated chi energy into his left fist and continued toward the aliens.

* * *

Luke Cage was 10 feet from the bus when the weight inside shifted. Rather than continue to balance precariously on the edge, it started sliding through the gaping hole in the roadway as the passengers screamed in terror. Power Man lunged forward, and at the last possible moment he felt his fingers close around the rear axle.


	6. Chapter Five

AN: In a review, Jelsemium mentioned that Scott Lang quotes a lot of classic movies. So I decided to have a little fun with that. Ant-Man makes four (intentional) movie references in this chapter. The references are to the actor that I would like to see play Scott Lang. The one other hint I will give you is that the actor has worked with Joss Whedon on multiple occasions. Guess away in the reviews!

* * *

As soon as he felt his hands getting a grip around the bus' rear axle, Luke Cage planted his feet and pulled backward with all his might. His muscles strained as he let out a pained grunt at the weight fighting against his grip. Power Man took several careful steps backward until only about two-thirds of the bus was dangling in the hole and slowly levered the bus downward so that the rear exit was only a few feet above the ground.

"Move as close to the back of the bus as you can!" he shouted at the terrified passengers, strain evident in his voice.

An off-duty police officer on the bus quickly took charge inside the bus, pushing everyone toward the back door. The man closest to the back opened the rear door, leapt out, and held out his arms to help the other passengers out. Another man near the door took over the evacuation inside the bus. He started by passing the youngest children in the bus down to the man on the ground. Once all the children were out of the bus, he jumped down and the two men began helping the rest of the passengers out. After several agonizing minutes, Cage felt the weight in the bus starting to shift and lessen as the people moved toward the back of the bus and exited.

As soon as the last person in the bus—the police officer—had jumped down from the bus, Power Man felt the bus' center of gravity shift very suddenly to the front of the bus. He let go as soon as it did and fell backward into the crowd of people as the bus finally tumbled through the opening and into the water below. The police officer gratefully helped him to his feet and clapped him on the back.

Before Luke could say anything, however, another alien speeder flew overhead. Before it had a chance to turn and fire, Luke grabbed a massive piece of macadam from the bridge and hurled it at the speeder with a grunt. The chunk of paving material hit the speeder's rear, pushing the back higher than the front, knocking one of the alien's off, and sending the speeder hurtling downward where it splashed into the river. Cage grabbed another piece of rubble to throw at the other alien, but it fell with two holes in its chest and one in its head before he got the chance.

Cage glanced over and saw the off-duty police officer with his gun still smoking and pointed at the alien. "Nice shooting," he told him.

"Thanks," the officer said, picking up his casings and dropping them in his pocket. "I knew all that time in the range would pay off sometime."

After shaking the officer's hand, Cage turned to look for his partner.

* * *

Iron Fist closed the remaining distance between himself and the Chitauri in a flash, and watched almost in slow motion as the alien spear stabbed downward at the young father's chest. He ducked as the other alien, the one facing him, shot another beam of energy at him. He shouted as he delivered a powerful upper cut into that alien's jaw with his left fist. Its jaw broke and its head snapped backward with a violent crack, its feet leaving the ground as it did so. Iron Fist twisted his body around, planting a roundhouse kick into the dead alien's chest. The body rocketed backwards and collided with the alien threatening the young family seconds before it was going to kill the man. The two aliens tumbled to the ground at the stunned father's feet. Danny ran over to the two bodies and snapped the second alien's neck to kill it.

Danny glanced over at where the bus had been and caught Luke's eye. Cage gestured toward the motorcycle with his head, and Danny nodded in understanding. Before resuming their trip, however, Danny felt he had one more thing to do. Turning back toward the young family standing in front of him in shock, Danny said to the father, "You be careful now. Keep your family safe and get out of the city as fast as you can. And watch out for homicidal aliens."

He looked down at the little boy, who stared back up at him in awe. He put his hand in his pocket and felt around for something. Pulling out a yellow bandana with his dragon symbol on it in lime green, he tossed it to the boy and said, "Here you go, kid. Listen to your dad; he'll protect you. Good luck."

The boy looked at the bandana in his hand and looked back at Danny with glee. "Thanks! Are you a superhero, Mister…"

"The name is Iron Fist," Danny said with a shrug as he turned to run over to where Luke was waiting for him with the motorcycle. He called over his shoulder, "And I guess I'm sort of a superhero after all this."

As soon as Danny got to him, Cage asked him, "What took you so long?" with a quizzical glance at Danny's rapidly-healing shoulder.

"Nothing. Just a little boy in trouble," Danny brushed off the question. "What about you? Why did you suddenly decide to stop?"

"Just… thought I could help. Well, we'd better stop wasting time and get to the meeting point," Luke said awkwardly. "Those S.H.I.E.L.D. guys won't be too happy if they have to wait for us too long."

Danny climbed on the bike behind him, and they raced back along the bridge the way that they'd come.

* * *

Lt. Col. James Rhodes sighed and looked around the jet's main cabin at the three other members of his team who were present. He began pacing, his metal boots clunking with every step as he said, "So, let's summarize what's going on right now. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow are out there fighting against an alien army in the middle of Manhattan. They're getting beaten to a pulp and still have no idea how to close the portal. Black Widow's flying around Manhattan hanging onto an alien speeder for dear life, Hulk is indiscriminately smashing buildings and aliens to pieces, Iron Man is flying around like a maniac like he thinks the suit is indestructible, and they're all trying as hard as they can to get themselves killed. Meanwhile, we're sitting here, fresh and ready to go less than 5 miles from the battle, waiting for a couple 'super mercenaries' to show up and join us. Our friends are out there risking their lives, and we're doing nothing. Anything I'm missing?"

"That pretty much sums it up, sir," Lang responded with a shrug.

"So where are those two 'super mercenaries,' anyways?" Morse asked, looking around.

At that moment their onboard communicator chirped and Luke Cage's voice came through. "Power Man calling S.H.I.E.L.D. team in Battery Park. Is anyone there?"

Rhodey tapped his communicator and said, "Power Man, this is War Machine. Our jet is cloaked and resting in the stand of trees west of the main entrance. When you get closer you'll see that our entry ramp is lowered."

Three minutes later, Luke Cage drove up onto the ramp, and Daniel Rand hopped off the seat behind him.

"Lukey!" Lang exclaimed, running over to Cage, grabbing his hand, and pulling him into a bear hug. "So you guys are the ones we've been waiting for! Man am I glad to see you! And Danny!" he said, shaking Rand's hand.

"Guys, these are the Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Daniel Rand," Scott said enthusiastically. "Luke and I were cellmates for 18 months at Seagate down in Georgia. Lukey here was the strongest man in the whole prison, the only man there whose daily workout involved bench pressing the bench press while someone else was bench pressing on it (meaning me). He's like a stronger and less annoying version of Captain Hammer. And Danny here's the best martial artist I've ever known—word to the wise: You don't want to try boxing against him!"

"You were in prison, Scott?" Danvers asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It was a long time ago," Scott defended. "When I got out, I decided to go straight, or at least I did until Cassie got sick. I knew Professor Pym from my security work at Stark Industries, and I kind of… borrowed… the suit to save her life. Fortunately, the Professor decided to go easy on me and not send me back to the clink. And anyways, not all of us can be decorated ex-Air Force pilots, Carol."

"Fair point," Carol said, placated.

"So what's the deal?" Cage asked, looking around at the other people in the plane.

"James Rhodes, or War Machine. I'm the team leader," Rhodes answered. "Our orders for now are to wait here until S.H.I.E.L.D. sends us into the fight. We are not to reveal our presence to either the team currently fighting or the bad guys until that time."

"We were almost compromised soon after we arrived," Danvers broke in, "but I took care of the problem."

"So that smoldering carcass on the path was your work?" Rand asked appreciatively. "I didn't know that S.H.I.E.L.D was issuing energy weapons on a regular basis."

"They're not, but," Carol's fist started to glow, "I _am_ an energy weapon," she quipped.

"Danny, this is Agent Carol Danvers from Minnesota, also known as Ms. Marvel because of her marvelous flying skills. She's our pilot, but she doesn't really need a plane to fly; there was a… foul-up last year. And now she can fly. And shoot energy," Lang said.

"The other woman on our team is Agent Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse, codename Mockingbird. She doesn't have any superpowers, but she's still quite the Wonder Woman to me. Smartest woman I ever met: She has a Ph.D. in biology and also has medical training so she can be our team medic. Of course, she can also use that knowledge to take a bad guy apart with her batons. You should see her in action," he added.

"A super twirler? Now _that_, I would love to see," Luke said dubiously.

"What, you don't think I can fight because I don't have powers? Or is it because I'm a _woman_ without superpowers?" Bobbi asked venomously. Without waiting for a response, she gave Ant-Man a nod. Lang closed his eyes and concentrated. A couple lights on his helmet started to blink.

At that moment three hornets flew into the jet straight at Mockingbird. When they were about four feet from her, she started to move almost faster than you could blink. A black metal baton shot out of her right sleeve and telescoped out to its full length. She caught it as soon as it was fully extended. The baton cracked through the air in three deft movements, leaving three stunned hornets lying on the floor. Mockingbird quickly collapsed the baton and returned it to the hidden pocket in her sleeve. The three insects immediately took to the air and flew directly out of the jet.

"Cool trick," Cage said. "Can't wait to see it in action."

"I sure hope you'll get that chance," Morse responded acidly.

Scott broke in at that moment. "Anyways, what took you two so long? It's less than five miles from your office to the park. That's 15 minutes or so; five with the way _you_ drive," he added with a glance at Luke. "How did it take you over 45 minutes?"

"Oh, we just ran into some trouble on the way," Cage said evasively.

Danny broke the awkward silence by asking, "So now that we've all been introduced, what do we do now?"

"Nothing. Now, we sit on our heels and wait," Rhodey answered.

"But I hate waiting," complained Danny.

"What a whiner," Scott joked quietly to Luke.

* * *

Marc Spector walked up to Director Fury's office, nodded to the Director's secretary, and stepped inside. "You wanted to see me, sir?"


	7. Chapter Six

AN: Thank you to all my reviewers, especially Jelsemium and Susan M. M. who have reviewed multiple times. Let me know what you think of my story with a review!

* * *

Marc Spector barged into the Doctor's office in the helicarrier's medical wing without bothering to knock. He glanced around the darkened room at the rows of old books with strange titles and asked, "Doc, are you in?"

"I'm always in, Mr. Spector; I almost never leave this room," said the room's sole occupant, a thin gray-haired man with a salt-and-pepper goatee, glancing up from the ancient tome lying open in his lap. "What brings you here?"

Spector responded, "Well, Director Fury called me last month and said he had some more information for me about that whole Committee situation from last year. He said to drop by when I had a chance so he could brief me because the information is too sensitive to transmit any other way. I've been busy since then trying to take down a particularly vicious gang back in Chicago—they did a drive-by on a school—so I didn't get a chance to come until today. And then I got here just in time for the ship to be attacked, and I wound up helping protect the main hangar bay from a group of the attackers. Afterward the Director was too busy to see me. So I was just on my way down here to return that book on Egyptian mythology you loaned me—I especially liked the part about Khonshu."

"Ah yes, I remember you having a strange fascination with that particular god," the Doctor said with a knowing smile.

Marc continued, "Anyways, I was on my way to see you when Agent Hill called and told me that Director Fury had summoned me to his office. Between the attack on the helicarrier and this alien invasion, he looked more rattled than I've ever seen him."

"Rattled in what way?" asked the Doctor, resting his chin on his hands pensively.

"He didn't smile."

"This _is_ Director Fury we're talking about, remember? You mean he smiled less than usual," he said sardonically. Adopting a clinical expression, he asked, "What do you think that means?"

"At a guess, he's worried we're all going to be turned into an alien demi-god's mumbling minions," Spector answered. He added sarcastically, "Beyond that, you're the shrink. You tell me."

"Anyways, the Director asked to speak with you…" the psychiatrist prodded.

"Yeah, he told me that he's already got some plans in place to deal with the Chitauri invasion, but that he won't be satisfied until the invasion is over. He wants to have yet another contingency plan to fall back on. I get to wrangle that together for him," Marc said.

"And he sent you to me."

"Yes. He said we might need something 'strange' to deal with this 'strange' situation."

"No," said Doctor Steven Strange coldly.

"But I haven't asked you yet," Spector responded glibly.

"But you were going to," Strange said angrily. "I wanted to save you the trouble. I'm not interested. He's already asked me far too often lately, and every time it's been a false alarm. Besides, I've already done my good deed for the decade."

"Fury thought that would be your response. He said to tell you, 'The fate of the universe lies in the balance. If we do not contain the invasion now, these Chitauri will certainly conquer the entire planet, and that may just be the first step to conquering the entire universe. As Sorcerer Supreme, it is your duty to intervene.' He also said to tell you, 'Iron Man and Captain America managed to keep the carrier in the air without needing your intervention, so that doesn't count as your good deed.' Besides, Doc, we may not even be needed. This is only a 'just in case everything goes all to hell—or more than it already has—and we need a backup to the backup's backup' type of thing."

Doctor Strange fell silent and closed his eyes for a moment, resting his head on his hands, while he thought. Eventually he closed the book, placed it on the table next to his armchair, stood up, sighed, and said, "We would be saving the entire universe, you say? Oh, what the hell? I haven't stretched my legs in a few decades, anyways." He activated his communicator and called into it, "Wanda! Get in here! I think by now the regular medics can handle things in the operating room."

A minute later a young woman burst through the doorway, brunette hair tousled up from wearing a surgical cap. She pulled off her surgical scrubs, revealing a bright red dress underneath.

"Yes, sir?" she asked. Looking around the office she caught sight of Marc Spector standing next to Doctor Strange's chair. "Oh. Hello, Marc. What brings you here?"

"Apparently Fury needs us to help save the universe from utter subjugation," Doctor Strange answered with a glimmer in his eye.

"Again? Isn't this, like the third time this month?" Wanda Maximoff asked with a laugh.

"That's what the Doc tells me," Marc answered with a shrug. "But this time it's for real. The Director wants us in place to help end this Chitauri invasion if we are needed and nothing else works."

"Let me grab my bag of tricks from my quarters," Wanda said, hurrying out of the room.

She returned five minutes later with a brown purse over her shoulder. She'd also brushed her hair back, changed from her slippers into boots, and put on a scarlet cloak. Following her was Dr. Bill Foster, an African-American biochemist who worked in the helicarrier's research labs.

"Hey, Doc. Wanda tells me that you're off to save the universe again," he said.

"That's what Mr. Spector here tells me," Doctor Strange said, gesturing towards the other man in the room.

"Marc Spector, also known as Moon Knight," he said, shaking Foster's offered hand. "Director Fury's trying to respond to this alien invasion, and he asked me to put a team together; kind of a last-ditch, everything's going to hell type of thing. I know that 'last-ditch' is kind-of Doctor Strange's specialty, so I came to him first."

"Do you have room for one more?" Foster asked. "My lab was one of the first things to get blown to pieces in the attack. Besides, just working in the lab here I don't get too many opportunities to use Dr. Pym's gift."

"You know Professor Pym?" asked Spector.

"Know him? I was his lab assistant for 16 years," Bill answered with a broad smile. "It was one of my first years working with him when he discovered how to alter the Pym Particles to grow larger as well as shrink. When he retired from being a superhero 4 years ago, he decided to give me the Goliath suit to thank me for my assistance and let me keep the name alive. Of course, I haven't left the labs for the last 3 years, so the suit's been spending a lot of time in my locker in the armory…"

"How is the Professor these days?" Marc asked curiously.

"Oh, crotchety as always," the biochemist responded with a laugh. "He misses being a superhero. He was one for over 40 years, and now that he's given up both his aliases, he's got practically nothing to do but play golf, which he hates. At least Janet's happy now, although her being happy inevitably involves a lot of shopping, which just makes the Professor _more_ crotchety…" He shrugged. "So how do you know Hank Pym?"

"He acted as a technical consultant for a team I put together a few years back. It was just after he retired, and I think he was already missing it, so I think working in the background for us helped ease the transition to civilian life for him. Since then he's provided technical assistance on several of my jobs," Marc answered with a small smile. He glanced around the room at the other two members of his team and said, "If you want to tag along with us today, I'd be glad to have Goliath on my side!"

* * *

Five minutes later, Spector had donned his standard Kevlar-reinforced white full-body suit and arrived at the undamaged secondary hangar bay. His combat belt held an assortment of poisoned throwing darts as well as a grappling hook. A gold-colored ankh-shaped truncheon hung from his belt next to his right hand, a pair of gold nunchucks on the other side. Over the entire outfit he wore a long white cape with a hood to hide his face.

After doing a quick walk-around of the undamaged quinjet he'd been assigned, Marc Spector slipped into the pilot's seat and rapidly moved through the preflight procedures. Next to him Dr. Foster did the same in the copilot's seat, having changed into his own Pym Particle-infused suit in the helicarrier's armory during the interlude. Behind him in the main cabin Doctor Strange and his assistant were speaking in hushed tones and holding strange talismans. Before leaving his office, Steven had grabbed his dark blue cloak from the hook by the door. It was now fastened around his neck with a gold clasp and draped behind him on the seat down to the floor.

"Moon Knight and Emergency Reserve Team requesting launch authorization," Spector spoke into the communicator.

Fury's voice came back immediately. "You are authorized for launch in three minutes."

"Sir?"

"You have three special guests for this flight who need to meet up with their armies. You may launch as soon as they are aboard."

"Yes, sir. We'll be standing by," Moon Knight responded with some confusion as he lowered the quinjet's entry ramp again.

The words were barely out of his mouth when he looked behind him and saw the three strangest people he'd ever seen walking up the ramp. The one on the left was dressed entirely in black with a black cape and a black ceremonial mask over his eyes. Two ceremonial panther ears protruded from the top of the mask. The only color in the outfit was a golden chain around the his neck. The man standing next to him had black hair and a distinctly green tinge to his otherwise tan pallor, brought out by the green bodysuit he was wearing with large gold bracelets. In his right hand he carried a mean-looking spear. The final man was wearing a dark blue outfit with a strange silver design around the front. He had an ornate silver muzzle covering his mouth with what looked like a volume control on one side.

The three men silently sat down in the rear of the quinjet.

Marc stopped staring and turned back to face ahead with a shrug. He keyed the communicator and said, "Our passengers are aboard. Requesting launch authorization."

"Authorization granted," a voice said. "Your orders are to proceed to the rendezvous point at Governor's Island and wait with the strike force there for orders to engage the enemy."

"Orders confirmed," Spector responded. "So how long will we be waiting?"

"Knight," Director Fury's voice broke in, "you'll be waiting until I say to stop waiting. When you arrive, part of the army you're meeting up with will already be there. About five minutes after you arrive, the next part of the army will show up, with the last part fifteen minutes behind them. At some point, you can expect some reinforcements. Then it's just a matter of waiting until I inform you that it's time to enter the battle. And Moon Knight?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Make sure your three V.I.P.'s arrive in one piece. I remember what you did to the _last_ quinjet you flew for us," the Director said dryly.

"Yes, sir," Marc said with an eye roll.

* * *

The silence in Team B's quinjet was suddenly broken when the sound of energy beams came through their communications system, followed by wind whistling and glass shattering. Danvers and Morse both flinched visibly as they heard a thud and Hawkeye let out a low groan.

"Does he _have_ to go through a window at least once on every mission?" Morse asked her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents rhetorically. "Good thing Romanoff's here this time to patch him up; that man doesn't know how to avoid injuries!"

Almost at the same time, Rhodey's suit beeped at him to inform him that he had incoming data from the Iron Man suit. Rhodey confirmed and lowered his visor as JARVIS began downloading the live video feed. Rhodey gave another command, and the head's-up display showed the view from the Iron Man suit. It was not pretty. Rhodey watched as a giant alien lizard's digestive tract shot past the screen at half the speed of sound. The view shifted as Tony turned his head left and right. Rhodey saw the screen briefly tint red, orange, and gold as the alien's body started being ripped apart by a hundred tiny missile explosions. He almost lost his lunch as the view tumbled head over heels before abruptly stopping with a thud and a groan from the other suit's occupant.

Rhodey turned off the view as it was suddenly populated with the faces of a dozen Chitauri foot soldiers. He tapped his communicator and angrily said, "Director Fury, in case you hadn't noticed, Hawkeye is down for the count now after forgetting he's not actually a bird and Iron Man just took a whirlwind tour of a space snake's digestive system. Can my team go in _now_?"

* * *

The Reserve Team was still five minutes out from Governor's Island when they were spotted by a dozen Chitauri scouts that had strayed from the main battle zone. Moon Knight radioed the helicarrier to inform them of the situation and dove sharply to the right while Goliath activated the quinjet's defensive systems.

The Chitauri speeders moved to follow, and Spector began jinking the quinjet up and down to avoid the alien energy beams.

Before Goliath could return fire, however, Black Bolt stood up and moved quickly to the rear of the quinjet. He grabbed a bar on the side of the jet for support and lowered the ramp. As soon as it was down, he unfastened the clasp on his muzzle, looked out at the oncoming aliens, and let out an earsplitting shout. The Chitauri speeders exploded in a shower of debris as the sound waves hit them. Black Bolt flipped the lever to raise the ramp, reattached the muzzle, and turned to see group staring at him in open-mouthed shock. He sat down before giving Spector a meaningful glance and calmly and quietly saying, "And _that_'s why I wear this thing!"


	8. Chapter Seven

AN: Credit where credit's due, the idea of Doctor Strange as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist is not original to me; I read it several weeks ago in an article on suggestions for a Doctor Strange movie. However, Scarlet Witch as his assistant/apprentice is (as far as I know) an original idea. It's a way to get her in the movies without the Magneto connection. Also, I don't own any of the characters (in case you were wondering).

Thanks to all those who have reviewed, favorited, and followed. Let me know if you have suggestions or criticisms in the reviews.

* * *

"Can we go in _now_?" War Machine demanded.

Nick Fury's angry voice came over the communication system in Team B's quinjet. "Unfortunately, the World Security Council has already made that decision for me. They just authorized a nuclear strike against the portal to try to end the invasion."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?" Rhodes shouted into his communicator. "That's a civilian target of over _8 million_ people! The nuclear fallout would take out the entire Tri-State Area, if not the entire Northeast! And as if that's not enough, the target in the _United States of America!_ Since when do we use nuclear weapons against domestic targets?"

"You're telling me," the Director responded, frustration clear in his voice. "The Council has completely ignored my arguments against their plan and removed me from command. They used their override code to launch the strike. And they're _not_ thinking at all; they're acting and ignoring the consequences. They must've missed the memo Stark sent about the portal device being energy shielded. If none of them could touch it, I don't think a nuke will do more than nick the paint!"

"Wait, so what you're saying is that they ordered a nuclear attack against a civilian population, and the nuke won't actually do anything but kill civilians?" Luke Cage interrupted, putting a dent in the side of the jet as he spoke.

"Welcome to the world of coal-black ops," Fury said sardonically.

"So what do you want us to do, sir?" asked War Machine, bile building up in his throat.

"I want your team on the ground there five minutes ago. Stealth is less important than speed at this time. When the Council sees how fast you are on the scene, maybe I can convince them that I've been handling the situation this whole time far better than they've given me credit for. Maybe I can convince them to take their collective finger off the red button for now and not launch another nuke after we stop this one. As for you, War Machine, you're going to go back up Iron Man. I already alerted him to the incoming nuke. Let him handle it by himself. I want you on station to back him up in case he needs the help, but do not inform him of your presence unless your assistance becomes necessary; it would only distract him. That thing is _not_ going off in the City!"

Rhodes looked around the cabin at his team, lowered the visor on his suit, and shot out through the open ramp. He said into the communicator, "You heard the Director, people. You folks get to the battle site as soon as possible. I will coordinate our attack with Captain America while dealing with Iron Man's nuclear problem."

A look at his HUD showed him that Agents Danvers and Morse had already started following his orders. Even before he'd finished talking, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had taken their seats and hit the ignition on the idling quinjet. The jet rocketed into the air less than 15 seconds after War Machine took off, the cloaking device phasing out as it did so. Danvers pointed the jet directly toward Stark Tower as Lt. Col. Rhodes made contact with Captain America.

"Cap, this is War Machine. The Director finally ordered my Team into the battle. What's the plan of attack?"

Captain America sounded a little surprised when he answered, "War Machine? Where have you _been_ for the last hour? I thought the Director might have forgotten about your team."

"Sitting on my ass in Battery Park waiting for the Director to get his head out of his and send us into battle," Rhodes answered sarcastically. "And no, the Director didn't forget; he just wanted to see if you could do this on your own."

"And so now he's decided we can't?" the other commander asked with acid in his voice, grunting as he threw his shield at a pair of Chitauri.

"No, he's just decided that the Council thinks you can't," Rhodey answered angrily. "He thinks maybe sending us in will appease the Council into not blowing us all to hell!"

"Great," Rogers grumbled. He reverted to the unflappable World War II officer he still was at heart and ordered, "Place your team north of our position and work your way towards us. You and Danvers take over Stark's job covering us up top, and tell Lang to give us a distraction. Perhaps every cockroach in the city trying to crawl down the aliens' throats will give them something other than us to worry about."

"Roger, Cap," Rhodes answered. "I'm on my way to back Tony up with the nuke, though, so it will just be Marvel on air support. Oh, and we were joined by a couple other super humans before moving out."

"I copy," Rogers said tersely, firing his sidearm and hitting an alien in the forehead. "We're pretty busy here, and I don't want to distract my team. I'm not going to tell my team about your presence until your people get closer. Let's let Director Fury answer those questions."

"Agreed."

"He's going to love this. Stark and Banner already only trust him about as far as the Hulk can smash him into the ground; just wait until they learn he left us high and dry against the Chitauri when he had help less than five minutes away. He might have another rampaging Hulk loose on the helicarrier!"

* * *

Danvers shot through the sky toward the raging battle as Morse worked the weapons controls. Bobbi rained bullets from the mini-gun on the Chitauri speeders, destroying several in their path, as Carol maneuvered the jet through the battle, trying to avoid as many energy beams as possible. For all her skill, though, their mini-gun took a direct hit and melted into unusable slag just before they reached the main battle.

Just north of Stark Tower, a leviathan appeared from directly above them and roared, diving toward their jet. Danvers spun the jet into a barrel roll, but too late. The leviathan took a chunk out of their left wing with its mouth, severing the fuel line and sending the jet into a spiral. Danvers and Morse fought with the controls and reduced their rate of ascent as fuel pumped out of the hole and sparks flew from the damaged wing's electrical system. Twenty feet from the ground, Danvers knew the jet was likely to explode from the shower of jet fuel and sparks surrounding it. She hit the lever to lower the ramp, shouting for the passengers to bail out before the fuel caught fire.

Without hesitating, Cage and Rand leapt from the doomed plane. Power Man landed hard on his feet and rolled to lessen the impact, while Rand grabbed a flagpole on the side of an apartment building and swung around it before landing catlike on the ground next to his partner. Ant-Man glanced back at his fellow agents once before jumping out the back, activating his suit as he went. He landed on the back of a wasp ten feet from the ground, which flew down to hover next to Power Man's shoulder. The three of them looked up immediately to see what had happened to their teammates.

As soon as everyone was out of the jet, Ms. Marvel shot out the windshield with a blast of energy from her finger and grabbed her copilot's shoulder before jumping through the opening. The jet exploded behind them, taking out a couple of nearby Chitauri speeders in the process and raining shrapnel on the street below. Ms. Marvel adjusted her grip to both of Mockingbird's shoulders. She shot forward for a block before she turned upward toward the leviathan, simultaneously throwing Mockingbird horizontally at a Chitauri speeder heading away from them.

Bobbi activated her batons in midair, bringing both down on the arms of the rear alien as soon as she was in range and throwing him off the speeder. Her momentum carried her forward into the pilot, whom she knocked out with a single blow to the head. She planted her feet on the steering column and leapt off that speeder toward another one flying across her path as the first crashed into the side of a building. Connecting her batons into a bō-staff, Bobbi landed on the speeder between the two aliens and swung her staff, hitting both in the head simultaneously and knocking them both off the speeder on opposite sides. She planted the staff on the speeder and used it to spring off just as it dove straight down into the pavement. Mockingbird grabbed onto the arm of a light pole to break her fall, swung halfway around, let go, spun into a tight midair flip, and dropped to the ground on her feet in front of Luke Cage.

She arched an eyebrow and asked, "Impressed yet?"

The only response was a dropped jaw.

* * *

Meanwhile Ms. Marvel rocketed upward at the leviathan that had destroyed her quinjet. Several Chitauri fired their energy weapons at her, but she absorbed the energy into her fists, causing them to glow a bright blue. When she had risen to the leviathan's altitude, the creature charged directly at her and opened its mouth, revealing two rows of razor-sharp teeth, to devour her. Instead, Carol let loose all her absorbed energy a wide beam of bright blue light directly into its mouth and down its throat. The beam traveled the whole length of the beast's body before cutting an exit out the back. The dead leviathan dove from the sky, wind whistling through the hole she had made through its body, and landed across the tops of three apartment buildings.

She glanced down at that moment and saw Morse, Cage, and Rand fighting against a dozen Chitauri soldiers. She watched as Morse knocked a trio of aliens unconscious with her staff while Cage picked another one up bodily and broke its neck. He threw the body in Bobbi's direction, bowling over a pair of aliens that were in the process of stabbing at her back with their spears.

Danny, meanwhile, was a whirlwind of limbs, flinging punches and kicks in every direction and blocking alien spears. Glancing at the aliens lined up in front of him, he suddenly grabbed the same light pole Mockingbird had used with both hands, holding himself parallel to the ground. He swung around the pole, pushed off, and flew feet first into an alien's chest, knocking it backwards into four other aliens. He landed catlike on the ground next to them, concentrating his chi energy in his right fist to finish off the last alien.

Before he could do that, however, the last alien fell to the ground as a swarm of mosquitoes flew into its nose and mouth. The alien writhed on the ground with an inhuman shriek while the mosquitoes drained all of its blood. Morse quickly pulled out her sidearm and put that alien out of its misery. She then shot each unconscious alien once in the skull before the three human-sized Avengers started running toward Stark Tower, Ant-Man almost certainly following on his unusual steed.

Danvers flew overhead, shooting energy beams in all directions to attract the aliens' attention. Twenty alien speeders veered to engage her from all directions. As they converged on Ms. Marvel's location, she stopped moving and hung suspended vertically in the air for a moment. Twenty alien spears shot their energy weapons at her, but as the beams hit she absorbed all of the energy into her body. When the speeders were less than five feet from her, Carol released all the built-up energy in a massive blue pulse radiating out from her body in all directions. All the speeders were completely obliterated in the blast as Danvers flew on toward Stark Tower.

* * *

After talking to Captain America and issuing orders to his team, James Rhodes turned on his heel and shot toward the nuclear missile's location. He asked JARVIS, "What is the status of the Iron Man suit?"

"The Mark-VII suit has taken quite a beating from the fight. He has been hit by several energy beams, leaving him with about 47% suit integrity. Crashing into an office building earlier in the battle damaged the hydraulics on his lower body slightly, and falling on a number of parked cars reduced the thrust capacity on his jetpack thrusters to 86%. Mr. Stark has used up his entire supply of missiles as well as his lasers. The ARC reactor is getting low on power—10% and falling—due to the numerous fights, several long flights, and very little break time to replenish over the past two days. The new ARC reactor core puts out far more energy than the palladium did, but it is still struggling to keep up with the demands of an all-out battle. The core will need to be replaced within an hour; far less if Mr. Stark carries out his plan," the AI reported.

"What is Tony's plan?" Rhodey asked.

"Mr. Stark intends to take the warhead through the portal and use it to attack the Chitauri in the sector of space from which their army is invading the Earth. However, the Mark-VII suit still does not have upgraded exosystems to withstand the rigors of space. As soon as Mr. Stark passes through the portal, the vacuum of space will suck the air out of the suit, causing the suit's built-in safety measures to automatically divert remaining power to life support, thus draining the power more quickly. Considering his power situation, Mr. Stark will almost certainly not have any power left to return."

"What are our options?"

"My calculations suggest that Mr. Stark will be able to successfully guide the missile through the portal, but that he will be unable to return once he has passed through it. Unfortunately, your assistance would not make a return any more likely, and would in fact lead to both of you becoming stranded in space," JARVIS answered.

Rhodes switched frequencies to call Director Fury and said, "Sir, why does it have to be Tony who takes the nuke? My suit is a lot fresher; my ARC reactor core is practically brand-new, so I have plenty of power. _I_ should be the one to do it."

"Negative, War Machine," Fury responded simply. "This is something I think Stark needs to do for himself, particularly after seeing how his team interacted before the helicarrier attack. And remember that statement I mentioned making? Do not stop him." The communicator clicked off.

"Damn it," Rhodes shouted to no one, "I'm not losing my best friend just to make a statement!"


	9. Chapter Eight

AN: Thanks to all those who review!

* * *

"Moon Knight, your orders have changed," Director Fury said, frustration bleeding through the quinjet's speakers.

"Sir, what's happened?" Spector said, immediately sitting up straighter in his chair and tensing up.

"The Council has decided that my plans simply aren't good enough for them," Fury said angrily. "Instead of allowing me to handle the Manhattan situation, they elected to call for a nuclear strike against New York City."

"Are they insane, sir?"

"Yes," came the immediate response.

A pause. "Do you want us to shoot the nuke out of the air, sir?" Marc asked sarcastically. "Because I think that might be a little below the Doc's pay grade."

"No, Moon Knight, that's being handled," the Director said simply. "Iron Man is taking care of it as we speak. Your orders are to drop off your guests at Governor's Island. Their people will be responsible for ensuring their safety—and they can probably do a better job of that than you can where you're going."

"And that would be where, sir?"

"As soon as you've dropped off your passengers, you will take command of the air battle. I want you high above the battle along with the Wakandan escort fighters providing air support for the teams below. Anything between 1000 and 10000 feet is your responsibility: Light it up. We're scrambling F-22s as we speak, but between the damage to the main hangar and runway, and the numerous destroyed planes, it will be a good thirty minutes before a squadron can form up and get to your position, so you and the Wakandans will probably be alone in this battle. I am not requesting assistance from the regular Air Force since their equipment does not have the same capabilities as ours and they would be sitting ducks. Well, that and they would want operational control," the Director added.

"Acknowledged," Spector responded dutifully. "We are approaching the landing pad on Governor's Island now. Moon Knight out."

Spector hit the ramp lever, keyed his headset, and told his passengers, "You all heard the Director. We don't have time to stop and let people out, so we'll have to make a touch and go landing. As soon as we touch the pad, the three of you will jump out, and we'll take off again immediately. Doc, Witch, you'd better strap yourselves in and hold on tight, because this could get a little bumpy."

Spector deftly worked the controls with practiced hands to go through the complicated maneuver. As soon as the quinjet was a foot from the ground, he shifted the controls so the rear wheels smoothly touched down, bringing the ramp into contact with the ground. Namor, T'Challa, and Blackagar, who were already waiting on the ramp, quickly jumped down and moved to stand with their waiting guard details several feet from the jet. As soon as the three were out, the ramp started to rise as the front wheel came into contact with the ground. All three wheels were only on the ground for an instant, however, as the jet rocked forward so that the rear wheels pushed off followed by the front wheel, and the quinjet was again fully airborne. The entire process took less than two seconds.

"Impressive maneuver," Bill said with a glance to his left at their team leader.

"Nothing to it," Spector responded, just letting the faintest flicker of a smile show around the corners of his mouth. "Picked that one up flying Blackhawks with the Force Recon Marines in Iraq. Quite handy when you can't stop moving for fear of RPGs. I still do that all the time in my chopper."

Spector directed the quinjet straight upward to where the six Wakandan fighter planes were flying a figure-eight pattern above the assembling armies. They were jet black with smooth lines of decorative gold leading back along the length of the fighter to twin triangular tails rising from the plane's back like the ears of a great cat. Each of the tails was lined in gold in stark contrast to the rest of the plane. A pair of missiles hung down from each wing, with twin mini-guns sticking out of the nose and smaller guns on the tips of the wings. As soon as the quinjet had closed half the distance, the fighters broke their defensive formation and reformed into a pair of tight wedges. They formed up in line with the quinjet at the tip of their bigger wedge and turned toward New York City.

"Wakandan fighters," Marc said into the radio, "this is Avenger Three. What is your status?"

"Avenger Three, this is Akátá Lead," a deep male voice answered. "We have been informed of the situation. If the bomb does go off, my pilots will be safe because our flight suits are equipped to handle nuclear radiation. Your director said to give you the lead on this mission, so we are waiting for your orders."

"'Akátá'? What does that mean?" asked Spector curiously.

"It means 'Panther' in Yoruba. We are the Black Panther's official Air Guard squadron, the best of the best, and we accompany him whenever he travels internationally."

"'Best of the best,' huh? Well, looks like we're going to see what you guys can do this afternoon," Moon Knight said tersely, silently grateful that English was the international language of aviation. "Akátá Squadron, we're going to continue in this formation until we are 3000 feet from the battle zone, and then spread out in a line abreast with 2 wing lengths of separation. We'll give the battle zone a flyby at 6000 feet and light up anything above 1000. Save missiles for any leviathans that stray up above our hard floor. After that, break into elements and engage any targets that move within our zone. Friendlies have been warned to stay below 1000 feet, but watch out for Iron Man since he's got bigger things to think about than his altitude."

"We copy, Avenger," Akátá Lead responded. As the planes reached the indicated distance, the six Wakandan fighters shifted positions into the desired formation with practiced ease. Dr. Foster activated the quinjet's mini-gun, and all seven jets began to fire simultaneously. Very few enemy speeders were above 1000 feet; the battle up to that moment had been confined to between ground level and 900 feet, or just below the height of the Chrysler Building (also known as "Thor's Lightning Rod"). A couple Chitauri had decided to camp out on the roof of the Empire State Building to snipe, however; the Wakandans' extremely accurate weapons guidance systems made short work of them as the Chitauri were ripped to shreds by the first volley from their wing-mounted low-velocity guns. A squadron of speeders flew up from the surface to engage the jets, but they were all destroyed before they could get close. One Wakandan fighter was struck by an energy beam from below, but the beam deflected off the jet's vibranium-enhanced shielding, leaving little more than a burn mark behind.

"Want to tell me how you did that trick, Akátá?" Spector asked.

"One of our country's most valuable resources is a metal called vibranium, which causes beam weapons to reflect off rather than impact, among other things. Our planes are not made entirely from vibranium, but they have thin sheets of it covering the most sensitive areas for protection," was the nonchalant response.

"Any chance I could get some of that stuff?"

"Sure. Costs half a million US dollars for a pound, but sure."

Before Spector could place an order for the enhanced shielding material, however, a pair of leviathans rose from where they had been disembarking ground troops along Madison Avenue. The beasts roared, snapping their jaws as they climbed toward the seven planes. Akátá Four and Five dove to engage the first creature with their mini-guns, but the rounds merely glanced off its armored sides. The leviathan opened its mouth to take a bite out of one, but the two Wakandan fighters nimbly juked in opposite directions left and right and rocketed past the creature on opposite sides, showing their underbellies to its sides. The creature abruptly changed directions to follow the two fighters, its tail turning in a long arc as its armored plates shifted positions.

As it did so, however, Akátá Six, which had followed the two other members of her element fifteen seconds after they dove, loosed a missile directly at a momentarily unprotected section of the tail. The missile struck home just before a metal plate moved to cover that location. When the missile detonated, the armored plate reflected the blast inward, increasing its power so that the monster's tail nearly disintegrated from the blast as it fell off. The beast writhed in pain as it fell from the sky, and Akátá Six followed up its missile attack by spraying the injured stump with fire from her mini-guns. By the time the carcass passed through 1000 feet and crashed into an office building below, it was already dead.

Meanwhile, the other leviathan had set its sights on the Avenger quinjet and turned to chase after it. Moon Knight threw the stick to the left, spinning into a wild barrel roll as the jet shot upwards to get away. Dr. Foster fought with the mini-gun's controls to fire backward into the beast's wide-open maw. Unfortunately, the mini-gun only managed to anger the beast more. Moon Knight abruptly stopped barrel rolling and juked the plane upward just as the leviathan put on an extra burst of speed to catch them but instead shot underneath them.

Doctor Strange suddenly rose from his seat and spoke in an authoritative voice. His cloak billowed behind him as in a windstorm only he could feel when he pulled a silver amulet with a sapphire set in the middle of it from a hidden pocket in the cloak's liner. The sapphire began to glow with power as he spoke. When Strange stopped speaking, the leviathan seemed to be ripped apart at the seams with a scream of agony. The carcass immediately disappeared as it was sucked into a tiny black hole that appeared where its stomach had been, and which winked out of existence once the leviathan carcass was gone.

Spector and Foster both turned to look back at Doctor Strange, identical expressions of surprise etched across their faces.

* * *

As soon as the Director ordered him to allow Iron Man to handle the nuke, War Machine wheeled in the air and shot off northwest toward Stark Tower. As he went, he fired off every weapon his suit held in all directions, allowing JARVIS to handle targeting. He passed between a pair of Chitauri speeders, which detonated simultaneously when his machine gun rounds hit home.

His screen showed the positions of all the members of his team and Avengers Team A based on the GPS devices located in their communicators. JARVIS was meanwhile adding in information on Chitauri movements gleaned from security cameras, news footage, and triangulated communications signals. They could not understand what the aliens were saying, but JARVIS could pinpoint their locations to within 5 feet using the jammed cell towers. He glanced at the screen and noticed a red dot approaching the green triangle representing Hawkeye. Remembering the man's last communication, Rhodes doubted he would be in a position to defend himself, lying on the floor surrounded by shards of glass and struggling to catch his breath. He altered course slightly so that he would pass by the window Barton had swung through.

As Rhodey passed next to the broken window, his suit's weapons system analyzed the scene and acted accordingly before Rhodey could even process what was happening inside. Hawkeye lay on the floor on top of his quiver with his bow held in his right hand. His left was reaching for a pistol that should have been on his left hip, but which had fallen out when he went through the window and actually lay two feet from his head. A Chitauri foot soldier, meanwhile, stood over him with his weapon pointed at Barton's heart, tip glowing and prepared to fire.

In the time it took for Rhodey's brain to register this information, however, his suit had already acted on it. The machine gun in his left gauntlet had come up and fired automatically, cutting the Chitauri soldier and his spear neatly in two. War Machine was gone before Hawkeye even had a chance to blink.

Rhodes, meanwhile, continued to make his way toward Stark Tower, watching the fight below him as he went.

* * *

AN: I used to translate Akátá. If it's wrong, be sure to let me know.


	10. Chapter Nine

Scott Lang was not used to being in the middle of an all-out battle. Most of his previous missions had been of the infiltration variety: Sneaking into an enemy compound to locate captured S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, using his connection to insects to locate targets too well hidden for traditional methods to find, and the like. Sure, he'd been present for his fair share of battles; he could still remember Budapest, when Hawkeye and Black Widow had taken on an entire rogue communist militia by themselves. However, he hadn't been anywhere near the fighting for any of those fights. His part in the Budapest mission, for example had been to use his small size to infiltrate the militia leader's compound outside the city, access his files, and determine where their weapons shipments had originated from while the agents in the city kept the army busy. The most fighting he'd done that day had been against boredom, since the leader hadn't been smart enough to leave a guard or even encrypt his files.

Today, however, he was thrust headfirst into a serious life-and-death battle. Around him huge (to him) people were wailing away at each other with energy weapons, fists, and bō-staff. A block away he saw Mockingbird spring into a handstand and push herself off toward a Chitauri crouching in front of her, catch its neck between her thighs, and twist around the alien's body, squeezing the life out of it and snapping its neck as she went. No sooner had she let go and flipped to the ground than Power Man grabbed the dead body and used it as a club to knock four other aliens unconscious against a wrecked car.

Iron Fist was closer to Lang's location taking on a squad of Chitauri singlehandedly. The Chitauri had him surrounded, but he was moving so fast that it almost didn't matter. He moved as though he could sense the aliens' actions before they happened. A Chitauri shot a beam of energy at his back, and he dropped into a kick at the same time, taking another alien's legs out from under it in the process, while the energy beam killed another Chitauri in front of him. Another one abbed at him with his spear, but Danny grabbed it and pulled the alien toward himself, using its body to deflect a thrust from a different alien and its spear to stab a third one. As if at a signal, the remaining Chitauri simultaneously fired their weapons at him.

Lang shook his head violently and came out of his shocked reverie as he saw his teammate in trouble. He sat up straighter on the wasp's back and concentrated on summoning help for his distressed friend. He sensed a colony of ants living in a nearby apartment building; he sent out a signal calling them to his aid. A swarm of mosquitoes was nearby feasting on the blood of some frightened civilians hiding in a demolished coffee-shop; he ordered them to come also. He could also feel a tiny pulse of energy coming from all around him, but concentrated most strongly in the team of Chitauri currently fighting to subdue Iron Fist. He shrugged that feeling off for the moment.

Ant-Man kicked his steed's sides to urge it forwards against the Chitauri. In his most authoritative voice, he yelled to the insects assembling around him, "Attack! I command you to attack the alien invaders! Crawl up their legs! Suck their blood! Attack! Attack!"

The ants charged at the nearest Chitauri as one. The leading elements of the colony sunk their tiny fangs into the alien's foot while the following elements crawled over their backs and up the Chitauri's leg. As focused as the Chitauri was on the martial arts master whirling around in front of it, it did not notice the tiny teeth in its foot. But it did notice when the ants had climbed up to its face and begun gnawing on its eyes and mouth. At that moment it dropped its energy weapon and fell to the ground, rolling around in pain.

Rand caught the alien weapon with both hands as it fell, using it to block three incoming spear thrusts. On an impulse, he concentrated his chi energy in both fists. The alien weapon began to glow under his hands with the power. Without hesitating, he channeled his chi through the weapon, causing it to emit an explosive detonation as he stabbed it home into a Chitauri standing in front of him. The explosion left a gaping hole in the alien's chest as the weapon crumbled to ash in Danny's hands.

Meanwhile, the swarm of mosquitoes was attacking the remaining Chitauri. Ant-Man commanded them to divide into groups of ten and attack each alien's face. Three mosquitoes latched onto each eye, which made the Chitauri smack at their faces to drive the insects away. The mosquitoes, however, simply stopped sucking the instant they felt the hands coming closer and flew away to avoid being squashed. As soon as the alien moved its hands away, the mosquitoes resumed sucking out their ocular fluid, and the process repeated. The other mosquitoes, meanwhile, attacked the aliens' ear and nose holes, burrowing as far in as possible before sinking their proboscises into the unprotected flesh. The pain in their eyes, ears, and noses made the remaining aliens easy targets for Iron Fist to finish off with a few well-placed punches and kicks.

While this was happening, Ant-Man flew on toward where the other two members of his team were fighting. As soon as he was close, he commanded his wasp mount to attack a Chitauri's face. When the wasp was close enough, Lang jumped off, landing on an outstretched arm. He ran up its arm, found a handhold on the lower lip of its helmet, and started kicking it in the cheek as hard as he could. Simultaneously, the wasp stung the Chitauri everywhere on its face that it could reach. The repeated blows and stings knocked the alien unconscious. When it began to fall over, Lang leapt off its head, grabbed hold of one of the wasp's legs, and swung himself back onto its back.

By this time Iron Fist had caught up to the three others where Mockingbird and Power Man were standing in the middle of three burned-out cars, but as he arrived they all realized the Chitauri were cutting them off in every direction. As the other three prepared to battle through the crowd to the empty street beyond, Ant-Man glanced up and saw Danvers preparing to strafe the Chitauri from above. The Chitauri had their weapons lowered and aimed at his teammates' chests, so Lang suspected that Ms. Marvel's intervention might come too late. Thinking quickly, he summoned all the cockroaches on the block and telepathically ordered them to fly directly into the Chitauri's faces. In their confusion, they began firing their weapons in all directions.

That momentary distraction was all the team needed. When she saw the cockroaches attack, Ms. Marvel dove into the crowd, throwing punches and energy beams in every direction to cause even more confusion. Luke Cage picked up Iron Fist and Mockingbird at the same time and threw them both over the randomly-firing energy beams into the crowd of Chitauri before charging into the crowd himself. Mockingbird used her staff to catch herself before she reached the ground and spun around it in a circle with her right foot extended, kicking the aliens surrounding her in the face and stunning them. She then pushed off further into the crowd and landed on her toes, swinging her bō-staff one-handed around her like a helicopter blade. She dropped down into a crouch, using the staff to create separation between her and the Chitauri. The surprised aliens fell back, giving her a wide berth as they raised their energy weapons to fire on her.

Before they could fire, however, Iron Fist propelled himself to her location by jumping on the heads of the stunned Chitauri below him. He landed beside Mockingbird before delivering a chi-infused knockout blow to the nearest Chitauri, who fell to his side, taking out the other aliens surrounding them like dominoes.

Lang watched all of this from his position in the circle of burned-out cars, but he noticed that his size was distorting the view. He realized that remaining so close to the others' head level made seeing the entire battle difficult in his current size, so he urged his wasp to fly up higher, stopping at around 20 feet, giving him a better perspective of the battle below.

He saw Mockingbird and Iron Fist whirling around each other with their fists and feet moving in sync. Neither staying in the same spot more than a moment. A few feet away, Ms. Marvel and Power Man fought back to back. Ms. Marvel absorbed all the energy that the Chitauri shot at her, returning it to them in powerful light blue beams. Power Man was using a wrecked Prius as a club to pound any Chitauri who got too close into the ground.

The higher perspective also gave his telekinetic helmet a greater range. He could sense all the insects within a 2-block radius of the battle: Two colonies of ants, one of carpenter ants in the building across from him and the other a block east; a beehive under the awning of a hotel down the street, with another on the next block; a wasp nest (his mount's home) a block north built into the stairs under a tenement building; a hornet nest in a tree on the next street east. With a mischievous grin, Lang summoned all of those insects to himself (ignoring the ants).

When his small winged army had assembled, he activated his communicator and shouted to his teammates, "Hit the ground!" At the same time, he ordered the insects to swarm everything in the area between five and seven feet off the ground.

The bees, wasps, and hornets dove for the ring of Chitauri with a vengeance. From the perspective of Ant-Man's teammates crouching near the ground, the sky above them suddenly turned black as the stinging insects blotted out the sun.

Ant-Man led from the front as his army descended on the unsuspecting Chitauri. Scott jumped from his wasp onto the closest Chitauri's head as soon as he was in range. He slid down its helmet, grabbing onto its nose as he passed. He held on with one hand while he punched as hard as he could with the other, taking advantage of the fact that he retained his normal level of strength in the smaller form. The creature howled in surprise and shock, and then immediately felt hundreds of tiny stings as Ant-Man's army joined the attack. As soon as the alien he was on started to fall, Ant-Man jumped off and landed right back on his wasp.

Meanwhile, every Chitauri in the area was suffering a similar fate as the bees, hornets, and wasps covered every inch of exposed skin with stings. They jumped around and howled as the poison worked its way into their system much more quickly than it would in humans; their lack of previous exposure to or defense against the poison made it far more toxic to them.

Moments later, the four other Avengers rose to their feet and surveyed the damage. Every one of the Chitauri that had been attacking them had fallen to the ground and was either dead or nearly there, twitching in pain. Every inch of their bodies above five feet from the ground was covered in tiny red bumps, in some cases overlapping.

Agent Danvers looked over at the wasp hovering three inches above her right shoulder and said, "Scott, remind me never to get on your bad side!" Without waiting for a response, she shot off into the sky to survey the battle and locate Iron Man and his nuclear missile, Lang following close behind on his small steed. The three Avengers on the ground continued their race toward Team A and the main battle.

* * *

War Machine arrived at Stark Tower just a minute before Iron Man and the nuke did. He decided that the best way to avoid distracting his friend would be to position himself a block north of the building. That way, he would be close enough to step in if Tony was unable to make the turn, but far enough away that Tony would not see him in his peripheral vision. _Of course, the only things that exist for him right now are probably the Tower, the nuke, and the portal_, Rhodey thought to himself with a sigh. He ordered JARVIS to make sure that his IFF icon was not appearing on Tony's heads-up display; if he saw _that_, he might just drop the nuke in surprise!


	11. Chapter Ten

AN: Laverock mentioned in a review that Scott Lang fights mean in the last chapter. I actually had some trouble figuring out how Ant-Man would fight against regular-sized enemies. You may remember I said early on that I didn't read the comics; all of my information about the characters is coming from the movies and from Wikipedia. When Wikipedia talks about any of the characters who bore the name Ant-Man, it seems to skimp on such details as how they would fight. It mentions _who_ they fought, and many of the enemies were insect-based or insect-sized. The most I could see that would suggest how Lang would fight against the Chitauri is a picture on Wikipedia of Dr. Pym commanding a colony of ants to attack a thug holding a gun. So, I kind of took that and multiplied it exponentially into Lang's method of fighting against larger opponents. His methods may or may not come back to haunt him in a future chapter since this is his first all-out battle.

Anyways, back to the story.

* * *

The nuclear missile streaked toward Stark Tower, Iron Man hanging on for dear life below.

JARVIS was feeding all the information from the Iron Man suit to War Machine, so Rhodey knew the exact moment when Tony would need to activate his thrusters in order to turn the nuke. As the moment came closer, he began reducing the distance between himself and the Tower just in case he needed to intervene. His eyes were glued to the countdown in the bottom left corner of his view screen. The moment was coming up just… about… now. He shot forward.

His assistance was unnecessary, however. Tony's thrusters activated, pushing with all the suit's remaining power against the underside of the missile. James Rhodes stopped moving as soon as he saw the thrusters engage. He watched from a block away as his best friend pushed with everything he had left to turn the nuclear missile upward toward the portal.

He could see Tony's face on his heads-up display as his friend rocketed toward the portal, making slight corrections every few seconds to keep the missile pointed directly toward the alien ship barely visible in the distance on the other side of the black hole. He heard JARVIS ask, "Shall I call Ms. Potts?"

"Might as well," was Tony's resigned response. Rhodey checked to make sure that JARVIS was recording the feed, just in case Pepper wanted to see it if…

Rhodey shook his head, trying to get away from that line of thought. The battle still raging beneath and around him faded out of his focus as he was momentarily lost in watching Tony. An alien energy beam sailed within inches of his head. Almost without a conscious command, War Machine's mini-gun returned fire, silencing the Chitauri warrior in the building next to him.

He watched as Iron Man shot through the portal and disappeared on the other side. JARVIS' connection to the Iron Man suit was suddenly lost as the distance between them abruptly climbed into the light-years, despite the line-of-sight view. At the same time, however, Rhodes could look up through the portal and see Iron Man let go of the nuclear missile, which continued traveling on a collision course with the alien mother ship. JARVIS adjusted the view in Rhodes' helmet so that he could watch the nuke enter the ship and detonate. The alien mother ship took up the entire view, so the detonation momentarily blinded Rhodes before JARVIS was able to dim the screen to protect his eyes.

Rhodey glanced around the view through the portal at where he knew that Tony had just been, and he saw him being pushed backwards slowly by the force of the blast. Even in the vacuum of space, there was just enough matter around him for the tiny particles of debris to transfer some momentum to the suit. However, he didn't seem to be moving fast enough.

War Machine shot upwards toward the portal, hoping to bring Tony back through himself. However, as soon as he had made up his mind to do so, JARVIS cut in, "Sir your suit does not have upgraded exosystems to withstand space travel, either. If you go through the portal, there is a 96.4% probability that you will have the same problem as Mr. Stark: Your life support systems will fail and you will be trapped in space also. Instead of rescuing Mr. Stark, you will only be killing yourself as well."

"But I have to—I can't—I've got to—Argh!" Rhodey said in frustration, banging his head and hands against the confines of the suit. Nevertheless, he remained hovering 500 feet in the air a block north of Stark Tower.

* * *

Ten blocks north of his location, the rest of Team B had not been paying attention to the drama unfolding in the sky overhead south of them. Mockingbird, Power Man, and Iron Fist were fighting off a squad of Chitauri at that moment, while Ms. Marvel was drawing the last leviathan in the city away from the others to deal with it herself. Ant-Man was observing his teammates below him from the back of his wasp and preparing another wave of insects to intervene where needed.

He watched as Mockingbird spun her bō-staff above her head and brought it down with a sharp whip-like crack on top of a Chitauri's head. The alien fell backwards to the ground and went limp. At that same moment, all the Chitauri around them went limp and fell down simultaneously. Ant-Man felt the presence that had been gnawing at the back of his mind all afternoon suddenly vanish. With a jolt, he realized exactly what the entity he had felt had been: the Chitauri's hive mind, which had just been destroyed. He catalogued that information away for later.

Out of their team, Ms. Marvel had perhaps the best view of what had happened. The leviathan chasing her was in the middle of roaring at her when it unexpectedly cut off short. She turned around to see what had happened, and watched the beast's eyes glaze over as it abruptly took a nosedive toward the pavement. She turned away as it crashed, flattening a street full of destroyed cars under its prone body, and looked around at the rest of the city. Everywhere she looked, she could see the sunlight glinting off the golden helmets and armor of Chitauri warriors, in sharp contrast to the pale gray bodies of the aliens they hid. But she looked more closely and realized that none of them were moving. She dove to hover a mere ten feet from the ground and flew down Park Avenue toward where the portal had been. The Chitauri below her were all unmoving and lifeless.

Luke Cage, Danny Rand, and Bobbi Morse all glanced around them at the alien corpses littering the ground at their feet before looking back at each other. Scott Lang jumped from his mount and reverted to normal size beside them. The four of them slowly and silently began walking the ten blocks separating them from the worst devastation, that surrounding Stark Tower. Carol Danvers dropped down and fell into step beside Scott, stretching out her tense neck muscles as the blue-and-yellow energy still crackling in her hands dissipated.

* * *

Moon Knight had an excellent seat to watch the battle end in the pilot's seat of his quinjet. After leading the Wakandan Air Guard fighters over the battle zone in line and dealing with the leviathans, things had quieted down for his team. A detachment of Chitauri speeders had made an attempt to attack their quinjet directly a few minutes earlier, but they had been silenced by the Wakandans as soon as they reached their hard floor. When the Chitauri had realized that the Wakandan fighters gave the Avengers air superiority, but that none of the planes were venturing below 1000 feet, they had chosen to remain below that altitude to avoid the fighter jets above them.

As a result, Moon Knight and the Wakandans had taken station at 5000 feet and begun flying in concentric circles above the city, watching the action below them and alert for danger.

Spector's eye was drawn instinctively to the flash of grey streaking through the sky below them from over the water to the east. Light glinted off a tiny red-and-gold object as it caught up with the missile and grabbed onto its underbelly. He signaled Akátá Lead to inform him of the missile's location relative to their position and turned the quinjet to shadow the missile from above.

The missile shot toward Stark Tower at top speed, with Iron Man certainly holding on for dear life below it. Less than 50 feet from the tower, Spector and everyone in his quinjet watched the missile's trajectory slowly adjust upward until it was no longer pointed directly at the tower. Four pairs of eyes followed the missile straight up until it disappeared into the black hole ahead of them and 10000 feet above their plane. From their perspective it looked like the missile vanished into thin air.

Dr. Foster let out a cheer and threw his fist in the air from the seat next to him as Marc clapped his hands together and grinned. He looked over his shoulder and saw Wanda smiling, while the Doctor sat in the same position with the same nonresponsive expression he'd worn since destroying the leviathan. Spector turned back to resume piloting the quinjet.

A minute later, his automatic sweep of the sky around his jet landed on three dozen Chitauri speeders flying down Park Avenue. At that moment, however, the aliens on them hunched forward simultaneously, like marionettes whose strings had been cut. Without anyone to steer them, the speeders dipped forward and crashed to the ground in a fiery explosion.

A glance at the targeting screen told the same story. A large number of speeders that had gathered near the Empire State Building had just been in the process of flying up to attack Akátá Two, using the building to give them the element of surprise. However, the riders on all of those speeders had suddenly gone limp and fallen backward off their speeders, leaving the pilotless speeders rocketing upward alongside the Empire State Building.

Moon Knight spoke into the jet's radio, "Akátá Two, this is Avenger Three. There is a large cluster of unguided speeders ascending on the north side of the Empire State Building. Could you take care of them before they do any more damage to this city?"

The response came back immediately. "Affirmative," the pilot in question said, as Akátá Two and Three broke formation and activated their weapons guidance systems. The two fighters' automated systems eliminated all of the speeders in less than a minute, though a couple still managed to crash into the observation deck of the Empire State Building before they could be destroyed.

A minute later, Director Fury's voice came through the quinjet's radio system saying, "Moon Knight, return to Governor's Island to pick up passengers. Your team has one more duty to perform today."

* * *

"Close it," Captain America's voice said over the communicator in Rhodes' suit a long moment after the nuclear explosion on the other side of space. He heard Black Widow plunge Loki's spear into the portal device and watched the beam of light flicker as the portal collapsed on itself.

War Machine looked back into the portal to find Iron Man. As he turned back, his view screen located the Iron Man suit moving backward toward the portal. Rhodey's heart leapt when the suit fell through the shrinking portal into the Earth's atmosphere just before the portal closed.

His heart sunk into his metal boots when his eyes confirmed what JARVIS was telling him: The Iron Man suit had completely run out of power.


	12. Chapter Eleven

AN: Thanks for all the views, reviews, alerts, favorites, and the like. Let me know what you think of my story! I still don't own any of it.

* * *

Rhodey watched as the Iron Man suit fell from the now-closed portal, nearing terminal velocity. As soon as he realized the suit was not going to reboot, he ordered JARVIS to divert all power to thrusters and determine the best way to reduce Tony's rate of descent without killing himself in the process.

As he was doing so, he heard Thor say, "He's not slowing down." The sound of wind whistling as he swung Mjölnir in a fast pinwheel indicated to Rhodey that Thor was also preparing to do the same thing. He vaguely wondered which of them would act first.

Before either of them acted, however, Rhodey's eye was drawn to a flash of green on a building opposite Stark Tower. The Hulk leapt from the building he had been holding onto, catching the falling Iron Man with one arm as he went. He grabbed at the closest building with his other hand to break his fall and started sliding down the side. However, Tony's velocity was so great that the Hulk couldn't stop himself and instead fell away from the building he was sliding down and crashed to the ground below, landing on top of a parked car. Fortunately for Tony, the Hulk had adjusted in midair so that he landed first to break the fall, with Tony landing on top.

Rhodey started to let out a whoop, but stopped short when he saw that Tony wasn't moving. At that moment he was torn away from the scene beneath him as his helmet beeped with an incoming transmission from Director Fury. "Congratulations, War Machine. Your team operated quite well, even without any previous experience together. I have another mission for you, and your team gets to take the lead on this one."

"Sir?" Rhodey asked nervously, stealing a glance at Tony sprawled on the ground below him.

"Since your team is already on the ground and relatively fresh, I want your team to spearhead the rescue and recovery effort in the city. You are in charge; I've already informed everyone that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be taking responsibility for clean-up; our P.R. department says that would be good for our image for S.H.I.E.L.D. to help out. S.H.I.E.L.D. meaning you, War Machine. The city is setting up a temporary command post at Radio City Music Hall, just outside the main battle area. Coordinate the National Guard, local police, fire, and rescue personnel. I want your team visible on the ground helping out; we're already working on a press release revealing all the Avengers' codenames, including your team's codenames and affiliation with the team that bore the brunt of the fighting. Pose for the press, even. My P.R. people say we need to show that we do more than just destroy things, and I don't think Team A will be doing anything but destroy their beds for the next 12 hours, so that leaves you."

"Sir, Tony is dead or unconscious at this moment. Can I at least see if my friend is okay before running off to coordinate things for you, sir?" asked War Machine. The angry bellow the Hulk let out below him emphasized the truth of that statement.

"No time, airman. You need to get on top of this before the fires are out, so you can put the fire in the press out," Fury answered.

"Fine," Rhodey said resignedly. The connection terminated.

* * *

The violently loud roar less than 3 feet from his face jolted Tony Stark back into consciousness. There was a brief moment of weightlessness as he didn't remember where he was or how he had gotten there. In fact, he could barely remember his name. The weightlessness passed almost instantly, however, replaced by the painful constriction of his Iron Man suit, which had somehow acquired a foot-wide dent running all the way across the chest, and a ringing in his ears from the shock that had revived him. The pain made him open his eyes finally. Looking up into the concerned faces of Thor and Captain America, and past them to the angry green face of the Incredible Hulk, Tony suddenly remembered everything that had happened: the fight, the leviathan's (shudder) stomach, the nuclear missile, carrying it into space, and his eyes closing as he watched the missile detonate.

He glanced around him in his disoriented confusion, still trying to determine how he came to be lying on the ground back on the Earth, when his last memory was of dying alone out in space.

"Wha… please tell me nobody kissed me," he slurred, causing the three crouching over him to relax slightly and grin. As Hulk's head moved back, Tony looked above him into the afternoon sunlight where his head had been, and thought he saw the light glint off of a man-shaped metal figure hovering over 500 feet above him to the left, with a gun sitting on its shoulder. He blinked and shook his head to get rid of the cobwebs, and when he looked back, the figure had vanished.

He shrugged and returned his eyes to his teammates.

* * *

As soon as Rhodey received the Director's orders, JARVIS informed him that Tony had been revived, but that scans of the offline Iron Man suit revealed that his ARC reactor chest piece had been severely damaged by the space travel, power loss, and subsequent fall. It would need to be replaced immediately, or else it could fail again permanently. He nearly flew down to change it out himself using the spare in his suit, but remembered the angry man in the eye patch. Frustrated, he started reviewing options. Thinking quickly, Rhodes called the one other person in the area whom he knew could change out the ARC reactor: the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent formerly known as Natalie Rushman. She had been required to learn how when she posed as Tony's "assistant" last year.

"Agent Romanoff, come in," he called into his communicator.

"Rhodey? Where have you been?" the agent asked, confusion and concern evident in her tone.

"Ask your Director," he answered sardonically. "You need to grab a spare ARC reactor chest piece. Tony's is shot, so you'll need to switch it out first chance you get. There's one behind the bar in the penthouse underneath the counter. There is a biometric lock on the safe, but JARVIS will disable it for you so you won't have to break it; I think there's enough broken stuff in that tower as it is!"

He heard combat boots thudding on stairs, followed by the sounds of someone rummaging through a pile of rubble. There was an electronic beep followed by a click. "I've got it," she answered, her emotionless mask back in place. "They're on their way up now, so I'll make him switch it out when they get up here."

"Thanks. It's the most I've been able to do for him today," Rhodey said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he terminated the call.

He turned in the air and directed the suit to Radio City Music Hall to meet the National Guard general and police and fire department chiefs to begin coordinating rescue efforts. As he flew, he called the other members of his team.

"Team B, what is your status?" he asked.

"En route to Stark Tower," Danvers responded. "We don't have any serious injuries, just a lot of bumps and bruises. Morse may have sprained her wrist, but that's it. What's happening?"

"Change of plans. Head for Radio City Music Hall; we are now responsible for coordinating rescue efforts and smiling for the cameras," Rhodey answered.

"Why?" asked Luke Cage.

"Because the Director hates us," was Rhodes' glib response. "Apparently because we weren't directly involved in most of the fighting, he thinks we need to earn our keep. Team A is worn out and dealing with severe injuries, while we are close, fresh, and relatively unscathed. So we get to do something."

Rand said, "Hey, I'm all for helping with the cleanup, but our standard fee does not include press conferences!"

"Yeah, and does S.H.I.E.L.D. really want our faces plastered all over the news?" Morse asked. "I may not be a regular field operative, but I still go out on missions often enough to appreciate maintaining my anonymity."

"None of you are going to be giving interviews," Rhodes promised. "I've dealt with enough bull, and anyways they already know my face from that Expo debacle; I'll handle the media. You guys just need to be visible in your uniforms doing your thing when the cameras come around."

"You've dealt with the media before?" asked Lang doubtfully.

"Oh no, nothing of _that_ sort," Rhodes said with feigned horror. He gave a small laugh and said, "No, I've dealt with politicians, and they are _much_ worse!"

"Fine," Cage acquiesced. "But if they start poking their noses in my business, S.H.I.E.L.D.'S going to be paying for some new T.V. vans."

* * *

Marc Spector arrived at Governor's Island five minutes after the portal was closed. This time around he allowed the quinjet to rest on the tarmac for several minutes, long enough for four Inhuman soldiers from King Blackagar's personal guard detail to board. Once his new passengers were seated, Spector raised the ramp and took off.

They headed north toward Stark Tower. They were accompanied by three of the Wakandan escort fighters, one leading them with the other two flanking them on either side. The other three fighters meanwhile had resumed patrolling the air above Governor's Island to defend their king and the assembled armies.

The sky above New York City was clear of civilian aircraft; the Air Force had done a good job of diverting flights to avoid civilian casualties during the battle. As a result, Spector had an easy flight from Governor's Island to Stark Tower. On the way, he looked down and inspected the damage: Alien bodies scattered everywhere; buildings with varying degrees of damage, from tiny pockmarks to completely demolished; vehicles burning in the streets. Looking closer, he could see that some of the bodies littering the ground were human.

When the quinjet arrived at Stark Tower, the Wakandan escorts began flying loops around the top of the tower. Spector looked into the penthouse and saw that the six members of Avengers Team A were standing over Loki, who was lying back across the penthouse steps. He turned the jet to face away from the Tower and set it to hover just above the too-small landing pad before lowering the ramp. The four Inhumans descended the ramp and entered the penthouse, with the Scarlet Witch following behind. The Avengers tensed when they saw the quinjet land and strange people disembark, but they relaxed a bit when they saw Wanda with the Inhuman soldiers.

"Maximoff," Barton and Romanoff said professionally with a nod. Captain Rogers gave her a friendly smile, which she returned.

The Inhuman soldiers did not acknowledge the six Avengers, instead walking directly over to Loki in lockstep. Two soldiers pulled him to his feet. One of the others produced shackles from beneath his cloak, while the last one pulled out an object similar to the muzzle King Blackagar had worn. Thor took a step forward when he saw the muzzle, but the soldier put his hand out in a gesture of peace and explained, "This is our King's backup voice suppressor. His voice has destructive properties when not controlled, and this device muffles his voice so it is still audible but nondestructive. In your brother's case, we will configure it to keep him completely silent. It will not hurt him; it will only prevent him from using his deceiving voice."

Thor stepped back, silently acquiescing to the device's necessity. The Inhuman soldiers quickly bound Loki in the shackles and latched the voice suppressor around his mouth. Once that was done, they escorted their prisoner back onto the quinjet. As soon as Wanda Maximoff had also boarded the jet, Spector raised the ramp and lifted away from the landing pad. The four Inhuman soldiers gestured for Loki to sit down on one of the benches while they remained standing around him.

The three Wakandan escort fighters resumed the same formation in which they had flown to the tower. The quinjet flew directly to the helicarrier, which had taken station and settled into the water just over the horizon out of sight from New York City. The Inhuman soldiers disembarked with their bound prisoner as soon as the quinjet had landed on the deck.


	13. Chapter Twelve

AN: I'd like to thank all my readers. Review and let me know what you think of the story!

* * *

James Rhodes arrived at Radio City Music Hall less than a minute later. Looking below him he saw the area around the building swarming with uniforms: police, fire, rescue, and military. He glanced back at the building and noticed a good chunk missing from the wall surrounding the performance hall. He carefully flew through the opening and gingerly landed on the stage below him next to the National Guard general who had been preparing for the briefing. He sighed in relief when the floor held his weight.

"General, Lt. Col. James Rhodes, codename 'War Machine,'" he said, extending a gauntleted hand to the man standing next to him. "I was sent by the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Divison to coordinate the rescue and recovery effort. What's the situation?"

The General took a long look at him before responding. "General Thunderbolt Ross," the man eventually said, shaking the offered hand resignedly. "Glad I'm not the one on the hook for the damage this time."

"This time, sir?"

"Last time I was in this city, I was directly responsible for over $100 million-worth of damages in Harlem," he answered. "An experiment went wrong, and one of my soldiers turned into a psychotic gray monster and started demolishing everything in his path for the hell of it. Nothing else was working, so I loosed the Hulk to try to take him down. Of course the city blamed me for everything because it was my soldier and my experiment. My research and development budget was taken away and used to offset some of the damage, and the Mayor took the rest out of my hide."

Seeing Rhodes' confusion, the disgraced Special Forces general sighed before explaining, "He talked to the Governor, who talked to a friend on the Senate Armed Forces Committee. The Senator took it up with my superiors, and they reassigned me. Now I get to be the highest-ranking commanding officer of any state's Army National Guard in recent history. Considering this is the second time the city's been destroyed on my watch in a year, I'm glad S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking responsibility for fixing it."

At a loss for words, Rhodey turned away from General Ross to face the assembled rescue workers. As he did so, he spied the rest of his team entering through the rear door. He gestured for them to join him on the stage, which they did grudgingly. Once they had ascended to the stage, Rhodes turned to address the crowd in his most authoritative military-officer voice. The suit's built-in amplification system made his voice echo in the large auditorium.

"Folks, my name is Lt. Col. James Rhodes, codename War Machine. I am here on behalf of the U.S. government to help coordinate the rescue operation after the battle that happened in your city this afternoon. My team here is affiliated with the team of superheroes you saw fighting out there, and we're all here to help out in any way we can. I'm sure you will have trouble believing me when I say this, but none of us enjoyed destroying your city to drive the alien invaders away.

"That being said, I'm sure there are people out there who are injured and in need of rescuing. So, let's get down to business. The first task will be to clear the streets so emergency vehicles can get through. I want police officers keeping civilian vehicles away from the main battle area, from 1st Avenue to 5th Avenue and from 34th Street to 47th Street. National Guard tanks will clear out paths through the debris to allow fire trucks and ambulances to pass through. But before any paths are cleared, we will have to scan for life signs under the rubble. Either myself, Ant-Man, or one of our air support units will handle that. Right now we're not trying to clear the rubble out; we just need paths to get to survivors.

"As soon as we have road access to each building, we'll put an ambulance or fire truck on it to provide medical assistance. Firefighters, police officers, and soldiers will start looking for survivors. Any you find go straight to the emergency vehicle for triage. If you get a case that needs immediate care, you take the patient and we'll bring in another vehicle. Any structural integrity issues come directly to me or a member of my team. Ant-Man will assist with the building-by-building search; Mockingbird will organize the medical teams; and Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel and Power Man will help with rescue operations. Questions? No? Dismissed."

* * *

Five minutes later, Scott Lang was directing a colony of ants to dig through the rubble blocking 5th Avenue to look for survivors. The tiny insects crawled quickly through upturned pavement, wrecked cars, and pieces of a fallen building. For the first ten feet, the ants found nothing but the broken remains of an empty apartment and some fast food wrappers that had been inside a car. However, around eleven feet into the pile of rubble, several of the ants sent Lang the signal that they had discovered a live human who had taken shelter under an overturned pickup truck.

Ant-Man climbed over the rubble to where the ants had indicated. He telekinetically ordered the insects to continue searching, while he shrank his body small enough to fit into the space between the paving stones and fallen support beams covering the truck. When he reached the truck, he found a little boy clutching a stuffed teddy bear and quivering in fear. He gave the boy a smile as he returned to as close to his normal size as he dared in the confined space. The boy screamed when he saw the helmet.

"Hi, there," he said, pulling off his helmet to reveal his normal human head. "I'm Ant-Man. What's your name?"

"Billy," the boy said, relaxing a bit when he saw Scott's face. "Where's my mommy and daddy?"

"I don't know, Billy, but I'm going to get you out of here to somewhere where we can find them," Scott answered. He tapped his communicator and said, "Marvel, I found a little boy here hiding under a pickup. 5th Avenue south, about 11 feet in from 34th Street. Any chance you could give us an exit? I don't think the boy would appreciate me shrinking him down."

"No problem," Carol answered. A couple minutes later, Lang heard the sound of wood being thrown aside. The rear of the pickup truck was bent back like a sardine can, and Ms. Marvel was looking down at Ant-Man protecting a 6-year-old boy with his (smaller than normal) body. She reached in and took the boy by the hand to pull him out of his hiding spot. She led the boy back to the police car at the end of the block, and handed him over to the officer with an order to help him find his parents.

Lang returned to his full size and returned to his insect minions, who were by then nearly at the end of the block. Once the ants reached the end of the block, Lang commanded them to continue to the next block. He waved for the Army tank idling at the end of block to start plowing out a pathway, and took off at a jog toward the next intersection.

* * *

Rhodey was enjoying the first moment of peace he'd had since getting roped into coordinating the rescue effort. As soon as the briefing had ended, he had been forced to pose for the media cameras outside the Hall. Once the camera operators had burned through enough film, he'd been "encouraged" to give a brief interview to a television reporter.

"_I can't make any promises about the casualties," he had said into the microphone. "All I can tell you is that my team of Avengers is cooperating with the emergency response workers to our fullest capabilities in order to ensure the best results possible under the circumstances."_

"_What can you tell me about the superheroes we saw on the news footage who did the majority of the fighting this afternoon?" the reporter asked. "Iron Man, Captain America, Thor…"_

"_Very little, I'm afraid. I am not authorized to divulge any more information than you received in your press briefing. When the crisis began a few days ago, a clandestine government agency decided to bring together a group of 'remarkable people' to counter the threat. The team whose picture has been plastered all over the news was directly involved in today's fighting, while my team was on standby to intervene if they needed the assistance. Fortunately, they never did, though we were still asked to enter the battle in the last couple minutes. As of now, the other team is taking some time to themselves to recover from the battle, and my team is spearheading the rescue operation."_

"_I realize you need to get back to the relief effort, but is there anything else you would like the American people to know before you return to work?" the reporter asked, shoving her microphone back into Rhodey's face._

_He thought for a moment before he responded, "Yes. I would like to say that I am honored to be working with my good friend Tony Stark as well as all the other members of the Avengers to serve and defend this nation and this planet. I think the American people should be able to sleep easier from now on, knowing that Captain America, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, myself, and the rest of the Avengers are all standing guard."_

_The reporter smiled, thanked him, and left with her cameraman to get some footage of the rescue workers, leaving Rhodes to himself._

Now he was hovering 200 feet above 1st Avenue and using his suit's sensors to scan for survivors trapped below the piles of debris. Seeing nothing, Rhodey called the National Guard tank standing by. "1st Avenue is clear for the first four blocks. I see a concentration of vital signs in a building on the left two blocks in. Let's get some boots on the ground in there as soon as possible; a couple of those vital signs are looking pretty weak."

"I copy," Iron Fist responded at once. "As soon as the tank reaches that building, Mockingbird and I will move in to check it out."

Seven minutes later, the tank was opposite the building in question, followed closely by an ambulance. As soon as the ambulance could pull up in front of the building, Rand and Morse hopped out and ran to the front door. A leviathan had fallen on top of the building, knocking pieces of the roof off, some of which were blocking access to the front door. However, a glance showed Rand that the door was still the most accessible entrance.

He began concentrating his chi energy in his right fist and called out, "Stand back from the door!" After waiting half a minute for the people inside to comply, he punched the debris blocking the door with all his might. The force caused the debris to crumble under his fist and took the door off its hinges. The door flew back into the entryway, revealing a crowd of people huddled on the far side of the hall.

Most of the people were uninjured, but a young girl was lying on the floor with a nasty energy burn on her stomach. Morse was kneeling next to the girl in an instant, her medical kit open beside her. She dropped a painkiller in the girls mouth, and then pulled out a tube of burn cream and applied it liberally before wrapping the girl's stomach with a bandage. As soon as the girl was stable, Danny picked her up and carried her out to the waiting ambulance, where a paramedic started her on an IV drip, while Bobbi moved on to the next injury. By the time Danny returned, she had set a little boy's broken leg, so Danny carried him to the ambulance, too. By the time he returned to the building, the rest of the survivors had begun leaving, leaving only the worst casualty still inside.

Danny went inside and found Bobbi kneeling beside an elderly man. He was wheezing and gasping for breath, and blood was trickling down his cheek from his mouth. Bobbi was gingerly bandaging his arm, which was oozing blood. She tenderly wiped the blood from the man's mouth, simultaneously telling Danny, "He has a couple broken ribs, and one punctured his lung. He needs immediate care. We need to get him out as soon as possible, but the paramedics won't be able to get a gurney in here too easily."

Danny scanned the room quickly with his eyes and spotted the door lying at his feet. He slid it across the floor to where the man was laying. Bobbi nodded to him intently and said, "Okay, I'm going to roll him onto his side, and I want you to gently slide the door under him."

Danny gave her a nod, and got into position. She grabbed the man's arm and pulled him toward her, rolling him onto his side. As soon as he saw her moving, Danny slid the door under where the man's back would be. Once the door was in place, Bobbi lowered the man gently onto it. With him on the door, Danny moved to the man's feet and Bobbi shifted to crouch at his head. The two Avengers picked up the door between them and carried it outside to the waiting ambulance. The paramedics transferred the man from their makeshift stretcher to a gurney, loaded him into the ambulance, and drove to the hospital. Danny and Bobbi silently turned to follow the tank down the street.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

AN: This story is getting close to 2000 views, so I'm glad people seem to be enjoying it. I have plans for 3 more chapters, and then ideas for one or two follow-up stories. Let me know if you would like to see future stories about the characters I "introduced" in this story.

* * *

"Sir," Agent Hill said into her communicator, "War Machine is requesting aerial support from us to help scan for survivors' life signs."

"What do we have available, Maria?" Fury asked.

"Avenger Three just dropped off Loki and four Inhuman soldiers assigned by King Blackagar to guard him," Hill reported. "They are still waiting on the main flight deck for further orders. We also have Hammond Squadron in the air in F-22s on escort duty. Murdock Squadron is on alert in our remaining twelve undamaged F-22s and can be in the air in 5 minutes. All of our F-22s have been fitted with Mark-III bio sensors. We also have five undamaged quinjets and a couple undamaged Seahawk-IIs fitted for search and rescue missions. Given some time our mechanics could have an F-16 squadron ready to go, too. If King T'Challa allows it, we could also request assistance from Akátá Squadron."

Director Fury thought for a couple minutes before responding. After weighing his options he finally said, "I'd rather not ask Black Panther for any more favors, so let's see what we can do ourselves. Give the order for Murdock Squadron to launch and take escort duty. Send Avenger Three and Hammond Squadron to assist with the rescue effort in the city. Moon Knight takes point in the air again."

Agent Hill said, "Yes, sir," before switching frequencies to give the appropriate orders. Less than a minute later, the fighters already prepped on the catapults were airborne, and the planes in the air had banked west toward New York City and moved into formation.

"Hammond Squadron, this is Avenger Three," Spector said into the radio from his cockpit. "Director Fury's orders are for us to scan the battle zone for life signs and report anything we see to the ground troops. Your sectors have already been assigned. Patrol in a grid pattern."

"Acknowledged, Avenger," Hammond Lead answered. The fighters fell into line behind Spector's quinjet until they reached Manhattan, where the planes split to search their own assigned areas.

Spector's assigned area was the block surrounding Stark Tower, which had taken enormous damage. Bill Foster had recalibrated the quinjet's sensor array to scan for human life signs during the flight. Spector concentrated on guiding the quinjet in a grid pattern over their assigned sector.

"Knight?" Dr. Foster said hesitantly a couple minutes into their scan.

"You find something, Goliath?"

"Three life signs in that apartment complex over there. A couple are rapidly getting weaker," Foster responded, staring intently at his screen, trying to coax as much information from the computer as possible.

"Let's call it in to the ground troops," Moon Knight said. He tapped his communicator and said, "War Machine, this is Avenger Three. We have three life signs in a building on 42nd Street halfway between Madison and Park. Two of the life signs are weak. Can you respond?"

"'Avenger' Three? I thought there were only two Avenger quinjets," Rhodes said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, well, there are at least three of us. Director Fury always seems to have more irons in the fire than anyone not named 'Director Fury' knows about," Spector answered sarcastically. "My name is Moon Knight," he added as an afterthought.

"Fair enough, Moon Knight," War Machine said with an unspoken nod. "To your question: Negative. The rescuers on the ground do not have access to 42nd Street yet, and will not be able to gain access for a while. Air access is not possible at the moment, either. I'm already busy assisting the National Guard on 36th Street, and Ms. Marvel is helping Power Man lift a bus off some trapped civilians over on 5th Avenue. Think you can get your quinjet in there?"

"Wouldn't be a problem, boss."

"Then this rescue is all yours, Moon Knight. You are authorized to deviate from your scan pattern to assist those trapped civilians."

"We copy. I'm en route now," Moon Knight said, shutting off the communicator. He dove the jet toward 42nd Street, carefully navigating the craft between the buildings as it slowed. He set the quinjet down right in front of the apartment building with the trapped civilians. Close up, they could all see that the building was unstable.

"They are on the third floor," Goliath reported. "Sensors show that the building has structural damage: That burning car took out one of the supports. If we're not careful, the building could come down."

"Here's what we're going to do," Moon Knight said. "Goliath, I want you outside propping up the damaged wall to make sure the building doesn't come down. Witch, you stabilize the survivors and get them out as quickly as possible. As soon as you have them on board, we take off. Bill, don't let the building go until we're out of the danger zone. I'll hover off the ground and wait for you to grab a ride."

Dr. Foster was already out of the copilot's seat before Spector finished speaking. He activated his suit as soon as he had stepped out of the quinjet, growing to 30 feet tall in an instant thanks to the Pym Particles, and pulled the wrecked car away from the building. The wall started leaning over towards the quinjet as soon as the car was out of the hole, but Foster reacted immediately. He braced himself against the wall and found a handhold on one of the windows. He locked his legs to keep his lower body still and prevent the building from moving. Once he was set, he turned and nodded to Wanda.

Wanda briskly walked over and climbed into the building through the hole the car had made in the wall. Locating the stairs, she ascended to the third floor. The door she was looking for was locked, but Wanda opened it with a wave and strode into the room.

She looked around and saw she was in a modestly-furnished apartment with pictures of a happy young family on the walls. At first Wanda couldn't see anyone, but she heard a stifled gasp from behind the sofa. Walking over to the sofa, she looked behind it and saw a little boy standing over his parents and weeping silently. The father was unconscious with a bad energy burn passing cleanly through his right shoulder. The mother had what looked like a stab wound in her gut that was slowly oozing blood. Her hand was lifted up toward her son to wipe away the tears streaming down his cheek. When Wanda's face appeared over the back of the couch, the mother took one look at her, let out a stuttering gasp, and passed out from blood loss.

Without sparing a glance for the boy, Wanda muttered a couple words under her breath and gestured toward the mother's abdomen. The blood immediately stopped flowing as red energy streamed out of Wanda's fingers and wrapped around her stomach, causing the wound to cauterize itself. Turning to the father, Wanda saw that the wound was not bleeding, but that he would need care soon to save his arm, and possibly his life. After tending to the parents, Wanda finally looked down at the boy, smiled hesitantly, and said, "I'm going to get you and your parents out of here and get you some help. Can you take my hand?"

The boy looked back at her with fear in his eyes, but after a moment he nodded, sniffled a bit, and took her outstretched hand. She made a rising motion with her hand, causing the boy's parents to hover three feet from the ground. The little boy's breath hitched when he saw what was happening. With a gesture like she was pushing them away, the two unconscious adults started floating out the door toward the stairs. Wanda half-dragged the child down the stairs with her in her haste to exit the doomed building, being careful to keep the parents within eyesight. A couple minutes later, the two parents floated out of the building through the hole in the wall between Goliath's legs. Wanda stepped out after them, lifting the boy out after her. With a final hand motion, Wanda lowered the parents onto the benches in the back of the quinjet. She set the boy down by his mother's head, and crouched by to the woman's abdomen and pulled out the quinjet's medical pack to give the two injured parents some more care.

As soon as he saw that everyone but Goliath was aboard, Spector hit the throttle to lift the quinjet from the debris-filled street. He hovered 200 feet in the air, at the apartment building's roof level. "Goliath, we're out of harm's way, but the patients look like they'll need immediate care. We've got to get going right now," he said into the communicator.

Dr. Foster nodded and let go of the building as soon as Spector was done talking. He turned toward the quinjet. The building started falling behind him as he turned the control knob on his suit to grow taller. Just as he felt the building start tipping over and hit his back, Foster grabbed the quinjet's entry ramp with his left hand. He hit the button to return to normal size, and Doctor Strange helped him pull himself into the quinjet just as the building crumbled to the ground. Doctor Strange resumed sitting at the far end of the quinjet, while Dr. Foster gingerly stepped around Wanda and fell into the copilot's seat next to Spector.

Marc turned the plane away from the destruction and headed toward Mt. Sinai Hospital. Though it was within the battle area and a leviathan had crashed to the earth right next to it along 3rd Avenue, the hospital had been spared any more serious damage than a few holes left by alien energy beams. As such, many of the injured survivors were being brought there. Marc radioed the hospital to let them know the situation on the way. He set the quinjet down on the helicopter landing pad on the building's roof, though he was careful not to place too much weight on the roof because one of the roof supports had been hit by a falling speeder. A pair of orderlies rolled gurneys up to the entry ramp and lifted the two unconscious people onto them before rolling them back to the roof entrance. A young female nurse took the boy's hand and led him into the hospital after his parents.

Spector lifted off from the hospital roof as soon as his passengers had entered the hospital. He turned back west to return to scanning his section of the city for survivors.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

AN: Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, follows, etc. Let me know if you would like to see future stories, as well as any ideas you may have.

* * *

About an hour into the rescue effort, Lang was helping to search the rubble along Park Avenue for survivors. Park had seen a lot of fighting, so the street was filled with Chitauri bodies, hiding the occasional human body. When the ants—and a few hundred cockroaches he'd "recruited" along the way—alerted him to human remains, he would use his Pym Particles to shrink the body so it could be easily retrieved, and then bring the body to a slightly damaged school bus which was serving as an impromptu morgue transport, where he would restore it to its original size. In his opinion, they had found far too many human bodies for his liking. Lang was starting on the north side of the battle zone and working his way south, the same area he'd fought in during the battle.

He was walking down the street, directing his tiny searchers, when he noticed something in a tree. Turning away from a ring of dead Chitauri covered with hundreds of tiny insect stings, he stepped closer to the tree and looked up into the branches.

"No," he gasped in shock, hands flying up to his mouth as he stared at the red-shoed foot dangling about six feet from the ground. It was a little girl who looked to be between 9 and 10 years old. Her left leg was clenched to her chest with her arms wrapped around it tightly, but her right leg dangled from the tree, and looked like it had been in that position for quite a while. The girl's eyes were closed, but there was an expression of pure agony etched across her face. Looking closer at her foot, Scott could see why: Her lower leg was completely covered with hundreds of tiny sting marks. He reached up to gently run a finger over the stings. They were rough under his fingertip. He carefully pulled her down from the tree. She was completely limp. When he tenderly laid the girl on a clear grassy patch of ground below the tree, Scott saw that there was no question: She was dead.

_She must have climbed up the tree to hide from the Chitauri_, Lang thought as he tried to make sense of what had happened to her. _It must have been while we were all fighting here, and she must have been terrified with all the aliens and superheroes running around. When I commanded all the stinging insects in the area to attack, I just said to cover everything between five and seven feet from the ground with stings; I never specified "Chitauri." Her foot must have been hanging down at that moment, and my hornets attacked her along with the Chitauri! I should have been protecting her, and instead I killed her! Her hair is the same shade of blonde as my Cassie's; it's like they almost could have been twins._

Scott gently knelt on the earth next to the girl's body, his searching insects momentarily left alone to do their own thing. He tenderly stretched the girl's legs out straight on the ground and folded her arms across her chest. He rocked back and forth and thought about his daughter.

When he had been convicted, Scott's wife had filed for divorce the next day. After he got out of prison, however, Cassie had asked to live with him in California while he worked for Stark Industries, rather than staying with her mom and stepdad. His criminal record had made it hard to find a position in computer engineering, so he started on the night shift of security and worked on the security department computers when needed. That was how Scott had first come into contact with Dr. Henry Pym, one of Stark's technical consultant.

When Cassie got sick, however, it had looked like no one could help her except one doctor who had disappeared. Lang had had no choice but to steal the Ant-Man suit from the recently-retired Hank Pym to rescue the doctor so she could help Cassie. When he had found out what Scott had done, Dr. Pym had chosen not to have him arrested, but to appoint him as the next Ant-Man, provided that he only used the suit for good. Shortly thereafter, Scott had been visited by a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiter.

Because of the danger and odd hours associated with the job, Cassie had gone to live with her mother when Scott began working for S.H.I.E.L.D. three years ago, and they were currently living in Indiana near his ex-wife's parents. He knew rationally that the girl he was crouching over could not possibly be Cassie, but irrationally his brain kept constructing increasingly improbable scenarios in which Cassie could have been caught in the city during the invasion, and could have been the girl he had killed.

_After all_, he thought miserably_, this girl must be someone's daughter. Her parents must be worried sick about her; I know _I_ would be if Cassie went out to the store and didn't come home after something like this! I need to find them, tell them how sorry I am for what I did._

He was so lost in his thoughts and emotions that he didn't notice the moment when someone else dropped from the sky to stand next to him. He looked up teary-eyed when a hesitant female voice said, "Scott?"

"What do you want, Carol?" he demanded bitterly.

"Luke has been calling and calling you on the communicator; the tank commander is starting to get antsy to start plowing through. When you didn't answer for 15 minutes, I decided to come and see what the holdup is. What's wrong?"

Scott didn't speak, he merely gestured to the dead girl lying at his feet. He had been unconsciously running his fingers through her hair for the last 20 minutes, and her face was spattered with fresh tears. Carol immediately crouched next to the girl and started smoothing the wrinkles in her shirt.

"Who is she?" Carol asked without looking up at him.

"I don't know," Scott answered emotionlessly. "I found her in this tree."

"Why is she affecting you so much? I hate to say it, but she isn't the first dead person we've found today."

"She reminds me a bit of Cassie," he said evasively. "Her hair is the same shade of blonde, and she's the same age."

"Are you sure that's all there is to it?" Carol asked perceptively. "She's not the first blonde girl we've found."

"Fine. I—I—Carol, I _killed_ this girl," he burst out in anguish. "Look at her right leg. She must have been in that tree when I set the bees loose against the Chitauri earlier. Look at the expression on her face; she must have been in excruciating pain when she died. If I hadn't done what I did, she would not be dead right now!"

"Scott," Carol said seriously, "if you hadn't loosed the hounds on those aliens when you did and in the way you did, the rest of our team might not be here right now. When you did it, we were surrounded and had almost no hope of escape. Luke and I probably would have been fine for a while, and Danny heals remarkably fast when injured, but Bobbi doesn't have the same abilities as us. Even with her athleticism, she almost certainly would have been killed, and the rest of us would not have lasted much longer than her. And this girl? Who knows whether the Chitauri wouldn't have turned around and found her once they'd finished us off?"

Scott breathed deeply and said, "I know… I know I did what I had to do, but I wasn't expecting to see the consequences so up close and personal. It's different for you; you served two tours in Afghanistan. You lost wing mates in combat. You saw civilian casualties; you even _caused_ some civilian casualties with your missiles. I'm not a soldier; I'm an engineer. Don't get me wrong, I've seen dead bodies before now, but none that I've actually killed—or at least not innocents I've killed," he amended.

Carol turned to face him and said sadly, "Scott, my last tour in Afghanistan there was one mission that nearly made me quit on the spot. My squadron was told to provide air support for a company of soldiers who were searching caves for Taliban insurgents. It was a simple mission—fly around and let loose with missiles if the troops on the ground needed backup."

Scott turned to look at her, a questioning look in his eyes. "It wasn't simple, was it?" he asked.

Her lip started to quiver as she said, "No, it wasn't. the first couple caves they checked were empty but had signs that someone had been living there recently. The soldiers went to the third cave. My wing mate and I heard them enter the cave on our radio, and then we heard nothing but cursing and guns going off. The lieutenant, a kid fresh out of West Point, panicked and ordered a missile strike to get some heat off of them. The troops escaped the cave just before we attacked, and I took the lead, placing a couple missiles on top of the cave. The cave collapsed under the twin explosions burying everyone inside. After the missiles detonated, the soldiers went back in to check the rubble for survivors. What they found has haunted me to this day."

She stopped talking for a minute and got a distant expression in her eyes. Eventually she explained, "Children. Women. They weren't terrorists; they were the survivors from a village that the Taliban had attacked the week before. They had escaped into the hills to avoid the Taliban, and the Taliban commander had seen an opportunity to embarrass the U.S. publically. He ordered a double agent in his organization to give the U.S. false information saying that some Taliban troops had taken refuge in the caves. Not knowing any better, we believed the intel. The men from the village had panicked when they saw gunmen at the entrance to their cave, thought the Taliban had followed them, so they opened fire. The lieutenant panicked, too, and didn't stop to check what was in the cave before ordering a missile strike. My missiles—and faulty intel—killed over a hundred villagers that day."

She wiped her face, sighed, steeled herself, and continued, "I quit the Air Force as soon as my tour was done. S.H.I.E.L.D. came calling less than a week afterward, and I've been trying to make up for that mistake ever since, taking every assignment I could involving the Middle East. The guilt still hasn't gone away, though the military did not prosecute me, and the officer on the ground only got a single black mark in his record."

Scott put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry."

She reached up and took his hand. She looked him in the eye and said meaningfully, "Don't be. I've learned to accept it. You're not the only one who's going to be haunted by what we did today. Somehow, you'll make it through this. You can take some leave time to visit Cassie; take her to Disney World or something. It won't make it go away, but maybe it will help. And once the rescue operation's over we'll see about finding this girl's parents."

Scott nodded and stood up. Carol rose next to him, and picked up the girl to bring her to the morgue transport at the end of the street. The two Avengers walked over to the school bus side by side. She handed the girl's body off to the two National Guard soldiers in charge of the transport. When she had done so, Scott looked at her and whispered "Thank you" before jogging back to where his ants and cockroaches had returned to searching for human survivors and remains.

"You're welcome," Danvers said quietly at his back, wondering if the nightmares would stay at bay that night.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

AN: After this, I only have 1 chapter left. Thanks to all those who have read, followed, favorited, and reviewed. Let me know if you would like to see more!

* * *

James Rhodes was completely exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally. He had been flying over New York City for over three hours, first to back Iron Man up with the nuclear missile, and then using his suit's bio scanners to search for survivors from the battle. Thus far he had located over a hundred trapped survivors, pulled dozens of injured people from the rubble, held three different buildings together by the strength of his thrusters so survivors could be rescued, and found hundreds of dead bodies killed both by the Chitauri and by falling debris.

During his first hour, he'd found a school bus full of children who had been on their way to a field trip. The bus had been caught in the first wave of Chitauri fire as soon as they had exited the portal. There had been no warning at all: One minute the kids were laughing and having fun; the next their bus was engulfed in fire from energy weapons. It was clear that about a third of the students had survived the initial attack; however, they had been killed before they could escape when a Chitauri speeder Iron Man had shot down had crashed into the bus, igniting the gas tank. When Rhodes called in the National Guard to tend to the bodies, he vividly remembered watching a pair of big, tough soldiers break down in tears as they carried the tiny bodies to the waiting transport.

That had been the undisputed low point of the day for Rhodes.

The day had had its positive moments, also, of course. When Rhodes flew down Lexington Avenue, JARVIS located a score of survivors hiding in a coffee shop. The shop had been attacked by a squad of Chitauri foot soldiers early in the battle, but they had only stayed long enough to spray the inside with weapon fire before moving down the street to attack the Avengers directly. Speeder fire had peppered the street outside the shop at some point during the battle, setting a number of cars on fire and flipping a garbage truck onto its side blocking the store's front door.

As soon as JARVIS informed him of the group of survivors, Rhodey called the National Guard to find out if they could assist. Lexington was still an hour from being passable, so the National Guard captain told him he would be on his own. Rhodey immediately dropped down to the street to rescue the survivors.

JARVIS scanned the building for him and determined that the garbage truck had not affected its structural integrity. As soon as he was certain that moving the truck would not bring the building down, he activated the laser attachments that Tony had installed on the War Machine Mark-II suit. To be on the safe side, Rhodey hovered over the truck and fired the lasers downward, using the pavement to stop the laser beam as he sliced the truck into three sections. He landed in front of the middle section, which was blocking the doorway, grabbed a handhold in the truck's undercarriage, and dragged the truck section out of the way. Once there was a clear path, he entered the store to bring the survivors out. Surprisingly, none of them were injured more severely than a deflected energy beam hit.

Carrying a seven-year-old girl with an injured leg out of the coffee shop was one of the best things Rhodes got to do that day.

Unfortunately, he had not been allowed to enjoy the moment, because as soon as he had cleared out the coffee shop, a call had come in from Hammond Four letting him know that a building in his sector was moments from collapse, and that a family was trapped inside.

* * *

"Power Man, Iron Fist, did you hear that last transmission?" Rhodes asked into his communicator.

"We did," Cage responded. "We're less than a block from there; we'll be there soon."

War Machine handed the young girl off to another survivor and immediately flew down the street to the damaged building. Scans showed that a Chitauri speeder had crashed into one support beam and that a leviathan's tail had smashed another one in its death throes, causing it to lean heavily into the street. Power Man and Iron Fist were already there waiting for him. Power Man had crawled into the space created by the leviathan's tail and was kneeling on his hands and knees to use his back to keep the building upright. War Machine rose to hover twenty feet in the air, put his hands against the wall, and reduced his thruster power to 2%. Rhodes steadily increased power until the building stopped tilting forward and resumed standing upright.

He called into his communicator, "Fist, get those trapped survivors out as soon as you can; I'm not sure how long we'll be able to hold this thing up!"

His view screen showed Danny jogging into the building through the door below him. JARVIS had the building plans up on the screen and had superimposed person indicators on it. Rhodes watched as the green triangle labeled "Iron Fist" approached five blue squares representing the survivors. The building plans showed a thick door separating them, but Danny barely slowed down as he entered the room in which they were waiting. The suit's sensors showed that the five squares' blood pressure levels had elevated substantially.

"Fist, considering what these people went through today, I don't think kicking down their door was the smartest idea!" Rhodes said into the communicator.

"You said 'as soon as you can,' sir. That was the fastest," was the younger man's only response.

The blood pressure readings on the five squares decreased within a minute as the triangle approached two of them. The other three squares moved out of the room toward the front door, while the triangle merged with the last two squares and apparently began carrying them out. Looking down at the front door, Rhodes saw a woman walk out briskly while holding two little boys' hands. Danny Rand followed her out the door with a pair of two-year-old twin girls in his arms. He gestured for them to move toward the police car at the end of the block, but one of the boys broke away from his mother toward the building.

At that moment, Rhodes felt the apartment building shift under his hands. "The building's giving out! Power, grab the kid; I've got the mom," Rhodes ordered.

Iron Fist started running faster and cleared out of the building's path. He took shelter behind a minivan and held the two girls close to protect them. Numbly, he wondered what would happen to the other members of the family.

War Machine ordered JARVIS to increase thrust power to temporarily delay the building's fall and buy them some time. As soon as he had done so, he let go and dropped to the ground. He reengaged his thrusters a foot from the ground, and shot in the mother's direction. He put his arms out and caught the mother and other son in his arms and pulled them in close. A final burst of speed took him close to the far side of the building as it fell around him. He gave the two people one last push as he felt a large chunk of brick fall on his legs, sending him skidding across the ground.

Power Man pushed up from his position holding up the building and felt the brick crumble above him and cover him in a shower of dust. Turning to his left, he spotted the last little boy in the doorway. Cage shouted for the boy to duck as he ran toward him. He tackled the boy to the ground and held him to his chest, locking his knees and elbows into a tabletop position with the child underneath him. The building rumbled as the façade tilted over and collapsed on top of Power Man. The wall landed on his back and shattered into pieces around him. The rest of the apartment building crumbled and fell to pieces, burying Power Man and the boy beneath the rubble.

JARVIS ran a diagnostic scan on the War Machine suit as soon as the building had finished falling. The suit's legs had been damaged by falling debris, reducing structural integrity of those pieces by 27%, thruster capacity by 30%, and mobility by 18%. Other than that, the suit was largely undamaged except for a thick covering of dust. Sensors indicated that the mother and child he had rescued were unhurt apart from skinned knees and elbows from when he pushed them away from the destruction. Power Man's life signs were behind Rhodey in among the rubble.

"Power Man? Are you okay?" Rhodey asked into his communicator.

"We're fine here. I think the kid may have broken his arm when I tackled him and covered him up, but he's alive." Luke pushed upwards against the press of the rubble covering his back, causing it to slide off to the side, leaving him uncovered. He looked out from the divot in the rubble where he had been crouching and saw War Machine at the edge of the rubble, and Iron Fist's head looking over a wrecked car. He reached down and picked up the boy with both hands and carried him over the remains of the apartment building to where the rest of the boy's family was waiting.

Rhodes nodded toward the end of the block where a police car was still waiting. Cage consented and continued walking in that direction, carrying the boy to the police car. Iron Fist followed him with the young twins still in his arms and the mother and other son jogging to keep up with the two Avengers. Rhodes glanced after the group before taking off into the sky to resume his search for survivors.

* * *

Now three hours after the battle, James Rhodes was finally done searching for survivors. Every road in the battle area was open for emergency vehicles to drive through the city. Every building had been thoroughly scanned for life signs by either War Machine, Ant-Man and his insect minions, or one of the air units. The worst-injured survivors had been rushed to emergency rooms around the city, and law enforcement had begun working to reunite separated family members.

The Avengers were no longer needed for the relief effort, so Rhodes had given his team leave for the night. The three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had hitched a ride back to the helicarrier on Avenger Three. The Heroes for Hire had returned to their apartments in Midtown to relax for the evening. Rhodes' only request from Director Fury was to make sure his team would gather the next day on the helicarrier to debrief with him personally.

Because he did not have anywhere else to stay in New York City, Rhodey decided to crash at his best friend's crashed tower for the night.

"JARVIS, where is Tony right now?" Rhodey asked the A.I.

"At the moment, Mr. Stark is at a shawarma diner three blocks from the tower; in fact, he has been there for the past three hours. Shall I contact him for you?"

"No, don't bother. He'll have to come home at some point," Rhodes answered, flying through the broken window and alighting next to the bar. He collapsed onto one of Tony's specially-designed reinforced barstools without bothering to remove his suit. He pulled off his helmet and set it down next to him and said, "JARVIS, pull out a beer for me."

"Would you like any particular type?"

"At this point, whichever one has alcohol," Rhodey responded wearily.

"Sir, they all have alcohol," the AI reported seriously.

"I know, JARVIS. This _is_ Tony Stark after all! Just pull one out for me and remove the bottle cap; I don't think I have the energy to do it myself," he answered with a groan. A beer bottle slid through a door in the wall on the end of the bar and down the length of the bar, coming to rest next to Rhodes' hand. He picked it up and took a swig.

Less than ten minutes later, he heard thrusters just outside the penthouse though the broken windows. The tower's automated suit removal system activated with a hum. Rhodes didn't turn around when he heard footsteps approaching him across the penthouse's pockmarked floor.

"Rhodey! What the hell are you doing here?"


	17. Epilogue

AN: Here's the last chapter. Thanks to all those who have read and reviewed my first story. Let me know what you think of the ending! I have already started a second story which picks up where this story leaves off, but focuses on Tony.

* * *

"So let me get this straight, Fury," Tony Stark said, rising halfway from his chair and leveling the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director with an angry glare. "You let us go in there yesterday, thinking we were all alone without a friend in the world, thinking we were the Earth's last line of defense against Loki and his crazy gray minions, thinking we had no shot at victory. You let us go in there thinking all of this, when you had another team of heroes waiting about five miles away to help us out, a second back up team behind them, and three different super-awesome armies waiting in the wings?"

"Yes," Director Fury said simply. "The world was in jeopardy, so I had three different Avengers teams in play as well as three separate allied armies prepared to intervene, and that's just what I've told you about."

"But why on Earth would you do that to us? I nearly _died_ carrying a nuke through a portal to the butt-end of space, and you're telling me you had the pieces in place to intervene in the battle and keep your shadowy Council creeps from hitting the big red panic button, but you didn't. Maybe if you'd sent in the cavalry a little sooner, we wouldn't have had to take this to the nuclear level!" Tony was nearly shouting by this point.

"And if we hadn't gone nuclear, what now? Agent Romanoff would have closed the portal, yes, but would that have severed the connection between the Chitauri queen and her troops on the Earth? We may have still had thousands of desperate Chitauri left to fight, rather than ending the entire battle in an instant like you did," Fury replied angrily, glowering at the obnoxious man. He took a couple calming breaths.

At that moment, a quietly powerful voice interrupted the proceedings. "The Chitauri's hive mind has been known to span parsecs of space without any discernible diminishment of reaction time. If the hive ship had not been destroyed, the Chitauri would have continued to fight under their queen's control until they were finally eradicated," Black Bolt said.

"Well, tell you what, Fury. Next time we fight the Chitauri, let me know ahead of time so I can pack my pocket nuke!" Tony said, focusing his gaze back on the Director.

"Tony, the Director's goal was not to get us killed," Captain Rogers said, speaking up for the first time in the debriefing. "His goal was to test us to see how well we could work as a team under extreme circumstances. His goal was to show us how potent we can be together, and to show Loki and his people how well defended the Earth is."

"That's the other thing I don't get, Rogers," Tony said, turning his angry gaze against the Captain. The other man met his stare without blinking as he said, "You knew all about the Director's plan, and you never told us?"

"No, I didn't know everything the Director was planning," Cap responded, looking away with a sigh. "But I did know there was more to the Avengers Initiative than just the six of us. Part of his plan to get me back out into the world was to give me operational control of a team of… special… people, like my Howling Commandoes back in… back then." The Captain broke off for a minute as he felt his eyes start to burn. He took a couple deep breaths before he continued, "Director Fury read me in on the Avengers Initiative about a month after I woke up. The file included biographies on all six of us, as well as a note that the Director was looking for more 'superheroes' to expand the Avengers Initiative beyond a single team, and that he had Lt. Col. Rhodes in mind to lead a second team. Last month, he informed me that he had finished recruiting the members for the second team, and he set up a meeting between me and War Machine so we could build a little rapport. No one else on either team was supposed to know that theirs was not the only Avengers team."

Director Fury continued Steve's line of thought and said, "Last week we saw just how important that level of secrecy was. When Agent Barton was captured by Loki, we all knew that Team A's security was compromised. Since he was one of the first people read in on the Avengers Initiative—Team A, Hawkeye had detailed information about every other member of his team, information which was used to attack Dr. Banner's self-control on the helicarrier and Mr. Stark's New York tower, among other things. I knew, however, that Team B's operational safety was not compromised because Agent Barton had not been read in on Team B. As an added precaution, however, I ordered Team B to avoid all contact with the helicarrier's guests; no sense tipping Loki off on our additional preparations if there was no need.

"When Loki attacked Stuttgart, I realized that our conventional military and weaponry could not compete with his alien army and technology. I knew that our Phase 2 weapons were not ready, and anyways I really don't like the idea of using that HYDRA crap, so I decided to talk to a couple allied peoples about assisting us. Wakanda provides us with vibranium and aviation technology, Atlantis has been a powerful ally against mutual enemies for decades, and the Inhumans have facilitated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deep-space travel since the 60s, so I asked these three leaders to meet with me. Coincidentally, they arrived at the same time as the attack on the helicarrier, but I had their quinjet hold position away from the carrier until the attack was over for safety.

"I also realized I needed to have something extra to send in with the armies if the time came. That's where Team C came in. I had asked Doctor Strange about the Initiative in the beginning, but he was not interested in helping us with 'minor squabbles.' Fortunately for us, he changed his tune when Mr. Spector explained the situation and asked him nicely to join his team.

"So yes, Mr. Stark, I did have a lot of options running around yesterday to counter this alien menace. No, I did not feel the need to tell you what I was doing. I will not always tell you what my plans are, but I will always be working to help you and keep our country and our planet safe, whether you want to believe me or not. Now, any more stupid questions, Mr. Stark?" the Director finished with a sarcastic nod toward the billionaire.

"No, I'm good now," Tony answered with an equally sarcastic head bow, making a mental note to hack S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Avengers files as soon as he got home.

"Right then, now that Mr. _Stark_'s been satisfied," Fury began wryly, "I would like to congratulate all of you on a job well done yesterday. Reports have been coming in since the battle ended of people expressing their gratitude to you for saving their lives in the battle and digging them out of the wreckage. The news coverage has been showing clips of the battle and its aftermath ever since the portal opened, and it is obvious that your intervention prevented mass deaths. As such, I am declaring the Avengers Initiative to be a complete success. At this time, the Avengers are hereby activated as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s official major emergency response force, with Captain America as operational commander. Agent Hill here will act as your S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison. Now, all of you, take the next month off. I do not want to see those of you on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s payroll on S.H.I.E.L.D. property for at least that long."

"That is acceptable, Director," Thor answered. "However, I will be taking my brother and the Tesseract home this afternoon. He shall stand trial on Asgard for what he has done to your planet, and he will face Asgardian justice. My father will not be lenient toward him."

"I'm guessing I do not have much of a choice in this matter?" Director Fury said with a raised eyebrow. "Very well. But I will hold you to your promise not to be lenient. Dismissed."

The Avengers borrowed a pair of quinjets 20 minutes later to leave the helicarrier. The one carrying the members of Team A as well as Rhodey, a shackled-and-muzzled Loki, and the Tesseract dropped them off at Stark Tower before returning to the helicarrier. The six Team A members changed into street clothes before leaving for Central Park. Rhodes meanwhile brought his suit down to Tony's main workshop to begin repairing the legs and wait for Tony's return.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Morse, Danvers, Lang, Maximoff, and Dr. Foster in the other quinjet were dropped off at Newark Airport to catch flights to their various safe houses; Lang caught the first flight to Chicago to see his daughter. After stopping in Newark, the quinjet turned back to stop in New York and let Luke Cage and Danny Rand begin repairing their slightly-damaged Heroes for Hire office.

Back on the helicarrier, meanwhile, Marc Spector walked with Doctor Strange back to his office in the helicarrier's medical bay. When they arrived, the Doctor dropped back into his armchair and reopened his book on Babylonian demonology.

"Are you sure you don't want to come visit my home in Chicago?" Spector asked. "The Lake is beautiful this time of year, and Oak Park is much quieter than the helicarrier."

"No, but thank you for the offer," Doctor Strange answered calmly. "I will stay here for now; I'm sure my skills will be necessary sooner or later to deal with the consequences of Loki's possession of Agent Barton and Dr. Selvig. Besides, I have everything I need in this room."

"Well, the offer still stands any time you're interested," Marc said. "I will see you later then; now that the crisis is over, Director Fury wants to meet and give me that information about the Committee that he promised."

Marc Spector left the office and closed the door behind him. Doctor Strange rested his elbows on the book in his lap, folding his hands and resting his chin on top of them. He pushed the previous day's events from his mind as he returned to his meditation.


End file.
